Ukraine's Foreign Ministry has issued a statement on the seventh anniversary of the UN General Assembly Resolution "Territorial Integrity of Ukraine"
The resolution has become the first resolute response on the part of the international community to Russia launching armed aggression against Ukraine.
"Expressing strong protest against Moscow's blatant violation of the fundamental principles and norms of international law, The General Assembly named illegal the fake 'referendum' on the status of Crimea and strongly reaffirmed Ukraine's sovereignty, political independence, unity and territorial integrity within our state's internationally recognized borders," MFA said in the statement.
"Systematic political persecutions, unjustified searches, detentions and arrests of opponents of the occupation, elimination of independent media, the policy of cultural extermination of ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, and blatant discrimination on religious grounds has become the norm of life on the occupied peninsula," diplomats stress. "Such an aggressive policy is aimed at intimidating the population of Crimea to suppress any manifestations of disagreement with the Russian occupation."
Read alsoZelensky approves Strategy toward ending Russian occupation of CrimeaIn order to cement its control over Crimea, Moscow grossly violates norms of international humanitarian law, including by systematically relocating to the peninsula Russia-loyal population to change its demographic composition, regularly conducting in the occupied territory illegal elections and military conscription campaigns, unlawfully expropriating property in favor of those close to the Kremlin regime, the statement notes.
Through an accelerated militarization, the peninsula is being transformed into a military base that threatens security and stability of the entire region, MFA Ukraine underlines.
Another example of Russia's flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law became a new norm depriving Ukrainian citizens of the right to own land plots on the peninsula.
The step is "nothing but an attempt to force them into acquiring the Russian citizenship."
"Ukraine will continue to take all measures in accordance with international law to counter the Russian aggression, to protect the rights of Ukrainian citizens, to restore its territorial integrity and to ensure full compensation by Russia for the damages caused by its illegal actions," the statement concludes.
