NEWSWATCH: Kremlin rules out handing back Crimea to Ukraine

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

[“Kremlin rules out handing back Crimea to Ukraine” – Reuters – March 17, 2015]

Reuters reports on Russia insisting it will try to sustain its occupation and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, despite the threat of continued Western sanctions.

Russia said on Tuesday it would not hand back Crimea to Ukraine, despite warnings by the United States and European Union that they will not drop sanctions over the Black Sea peninsula’s annexation a year ago.

Russia seized Crimea during internal turmoil in Ukraine a year ago, when protests were followed by the flight of a Russia-backed former Ukrainian president. The occupation was later formalized by the Russian government declaring annexation.

Both the United States and EU pledged to continue sanctions and oppose Russian annexation. Putin’s domestic political popularity was boosted by annexation.

In 1954, when both Russia and Ukraine were subdivisions of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union shifted Crimea’s status to formally be part of the Ukrainian portion of the Soviet Union.

[An updated version of the article added reporting on Russian military exercises in the Black Sea including long-range nuclear-capable bombers.]

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