Photo from UNIAN, by Oleksandr Kuzmin

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has approved National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Resolution No. 4689 dated February 1, 2021, on special sectoral economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) against the Republic of Nicaragua.

Read alsoUkraine's foreign ministry initiates entry ban for Russian propagandistSome 322 lawmakers backed the resolution with the required minimum being 226 votes, an UNIAN correspondent reported on February 2.

Speaking from the rostrum in parliament, NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov noted that in the summer of 2019, the Nicaraguan government decided to open the so-called "honorary consulate" in Russian-annexed Crimea.

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"Since 2019, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has repeatedly sent letters to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua, demanding the cancellation of this unlawful decision, but official Managua ignored the Ukrainian side's requests," he said.

What is more, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in August 2020 appointed Oleg Belaventsev as "honorary consul" in Crimea. In November 2017, a Kyiv-based court sentenced Belaventsev to 13 years in prison by the court for encroaching on Ukraine's territorial integrity.

Background

In November 2020, it became known that Ukraine had launch the process of sanction application on Nicaragua over the illegal appointment of their "honorary consul" in occupied Crimea.