Interfax: Kyiv calls for more pressure on Moscow to secure Crimea’s return

KYIV. March 17 (Interfax) – Ukraine has called on the international community to consolidate efforts to pressure Russia into returning Crimea and paying compensation for the losses caused to Ukraine.

“We are calling on the global community to pay more attention to the problem of occupied Crimea, to consolidate international pressure on Russia to force it back immediately into complying with international law, cancelling all its illegitimate decisions that led to the temporary occupation of a Ukrainian territory, and compensating for the losses caused to Ukraine and its citizens,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Tuesday.

“Russia has violated the basic principles of international law and European structure, upset the existing balance of forces in the region and provoked Europe’s biggest security crisis since the Second World War,” the ministry said.

“Over 400 Ukrainian enterprises were illegally nationalized, Ukraine’s subsoil mineral resources are being used illegally, 18 gas deposits have been seized,” the ministry said.

“Ukraine’s tourist gem has been transformed into a military base where Russia, in breach of the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty), threatens to deploy nuclear weapons, which poses a real threat not only to regional but global security,” the ministry said.

Kyiv also accused Moscow of violating human rights in Crimea, suppressing dissent, primarily among Crimean Tartars as well as independent media and journalists, the ministry said.

“Crimea was, is and will be part of sovereign Ukraine,” and “the aggressor and invader will be brought to justice,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry said.