Photo from UNIAN

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko called the "illegal" visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the temporarily occupied Crimea "violation of Ukraine's sovereignty."

Speaking at a Freedom of Speech panel show on ICTV, Poroshenko noted that the President of the Russian Federation had visited Crimea illegally.

"Today, there has been a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty in connection with the Crimea visit by Russian President Putin," he said.

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Poroshenko also commented on the Russian president's statement claiming that under the current leadership of Ukraine it will not be possible to achieve a "positive result" in relations between Kyiv and Moscow.

“Today’s Putin’s assertion that he is ready to cooperate with any candidate in the presidential elections in Ukraine, except Petro Poroshenko, is an absolutely clear position that before the presidential elections Putin will go around praying and asking that the choice of the Ukrainian people depend on Putin rather on the Ukrainian people itself. And my clear position is that you [Mr Putin] won't see this happen. Ukraine is already different and Ukrainians will themselves determine their fate,” the head of state emphasized.

As UNIAN reported earlier, on March 18, Putin visited the occupied Crimea in connection with the fifth anniversary of the annexation of the peninsula.

While speaking in the occupied Crimea, Putin said that the current leadership of Ukraine would not be able to achieve a "positive result" in relations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation and that Russia would have to wait until a "wave of Russophobia" subsided.