The Embassy of Ukraine in Lebanon issued on Monday the following statement of Ambassador Ihor Ostash:

“In February 2014 – 7 years ago, the entire civilized world became the witness of aggressive and violence actions, committed by Russian Federation against Ukraine. Russia temporary occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol which are the integral part of Ukraine’s territory.

We cannot forget that the occupation of the Crimean peninsula was the prelude to a broader campaign of aggression that includes Russia’s occupation of certain parts of Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine.

Human price of the aggression is constantly growing (more then 30000 injured, over 13000 dead, 1.5 millions of internally displaced persons and 298 international passengers on flight MH17  who were shot down by a Russian military missile).

It was an unprecedented for the postwar Europe violation of the basic norms and principles of international law and order.

Actions of Russia have become a flagrant violation of the Budapest Memorandum. Let me recall that in 1994, Ukraine abandoned its nuclear weapons - the third largest in the world — and, under the Budapest Memorandum, the signatories, in particular Russia, guaranteed the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of the Ukrainian State.

International community demonstrates clear understanding regarding the legal status of Crimea as an inalienable part of Ukraine and qualification of Russia’s actions as acts of military aggression against Ukraine.

The United Nations General Assembly in its resolution “Territorial integrity of Ukraine” in March 2014, as well as EU, G7, NATO, OSCE, Council of Europe, UNESCO and their parliamentary bodies in numerous documents confirmed the commitment of the international community not to recognize alteration of the status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol as a result of the above mentioned internationally aggressive acts.

Despite numerous initiatives of Ukraine aimed at the peaceful resolution of the conflict, the Russian armed aggression is ongoing and current trends of the situation in the temporary occupied territories can be generally characterized as deterioration in all areas.

Russia is brutally violating the political rights of the Crimean Tatars, the indigenous people of Crimea. Since 2016, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people remained banned, despite the Order of the International Court of Justice and numerous UNGA resolutions on the human rights situation in the occupied Crimea. Over 100 citizens of Ukraine remain illegally detained under politically motivated charges in Crimea and Russia.

Russia is suppressing the religious freedoms in Crimea. After the occupation, 1300 religious organizations in Crimea were banned. The occupation administration conducts systemic policy of forcing the Orthodox Church of Ukraine out of the peninsula.

The Russian occupation authorities are responsible for torture and other ill-treatment, inadequate conditions in prisons, illegal arrests, arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, as well as impunity of the Russian law enforcement agencies for these crimes, criminalization of freedom of expression in social media, interfering with the work of the media and human rights organizations, including Crimean Tatar ones. This is documented in the UN GA resolutions on the situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine (December 2016, December 2017, December 2018, December 2019 and December 2020) and three reports of the UN Secretary General pursuant to these resolutions.

The Russian Federation pursues the forcible demographic change. According to the official data, since 2014 over 50,000 Ukrainian citizens had to leave Crimea. According to different estimates, the number of Russian citizens that moved from Russia to the peninsula amounts up to 500,000. Only in 2020 over the course of 9 months at least 43,000 Russian citizens relocated to Crimea. The actual number is much higher.

Russia continues to transform Crimea and adjacent waters into its military outpost in the Azov-Black Sea region. Compared to the pre-occupation period, Russia has more than doubled personal strength of its military on the peninsula, from 12.500 to over 32.500 persons. During the occupation of Crimea, the Russian Federation prepared Crimean military infrastructure on the peninsula for the deployment of nuclear weapons, including refurbishment of the infrastructure of Soviet-era nuclear warheads storage facilities. While turning Crimea into a large military base, the Russian occupation administration is destroying the natural and cultural heritage of the peninsula.

On 14 January 2021, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has ruled on the admissibility of interstate claims in Ukraine's case against the Russian Federation No 20958/14 (concerning Crimea). Three other cases against the Russian Federation Ukraine brought before the International Court of Justice and the arbitral tribunals under the UNCLOS. The ICJ case is related to Russia’s violations of the conventions for the suppression of the financing of terrorism and elimination of all forms of racial discrimination in Crimea. Arbitral tribunals are considering violations of the rights of Ukraine as a coastal state in the Black and Azov Seas and in the Kerch Strait, as well as illegal detention of 3 Ukrainian naval vessels and 24 members of their crews.

As of today, the key parameters of international policy of de-occupation of Crimea have been already defined. It is based on the instruments of international law, policy of non-recognition of the attempted annexation of Crimea, sanctions, international adjudication, introduction of monitoring mechanisms etc.

It is important that Ukraine’s friends continue to make political pressure on Russian Federation, enforcing it to respect individuals’ rights on the occupied territory and to regain the illegally occupied peninsula to Ukraine.

In order to enhance and broaden the response to the occupation of Crimea and other related breaches of international law by the Russian Federation Ukraine has initiated establishment of the Crimean platform – new consultation and coordination format. Platform’s final goal is to achieve an eventual de-occupation of Crimea. The inaugural Summit of the Crimean Platform is expected to be held in Kyiv on 23 August 2021.”