Russia heightened pace has militarized Crimea, turning it into an island of freedom

Petro Poroshenko. Photo: president.gov.ua

The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko urged the West to use international legal mechanisms to Russia’s occupation of Crimea has become too heavy. About this he wrote on his page in Facebook.

He urged to strengthen the international regime of de-occupation of the Crimean Peninsula.

“At that time, as Russia heightened pace has militarized Peninsula, restoring the Soviet base and transforming the Crimea in the “island of freedom”, we must make the best use of the available international legal mechanisms for the transformation of the occupied Peninsula in a very heavy load for Moscow”, – said Poroshenko.

We will remind,on June 18 , the European Union extended sanctions against Russia for a year. This decision was taken at a meeting of Ministers for agriculture and fisheries of the 28 EU countries in Luxembourg. The restrictive measures were extended without discussion, just approving agreed by the permanent representatives of the EU decision. Note, the “Crimean package” of EU sanctions against Russia extended for one-year period, and now the sanctions are valid until 23 June 2019.

In turn, the EU Ambassador to Ukraine Hugh Mingarelli said that Russia will pay a high price for the annexation of the Crimea. The European diplomat also explained when Russia will end the suffering of sanctions.

Crimea was illegally annexed by Russia in March 2014 after the “referendum” is not recognized neither Ukraine nor the world community. Including the “Crimean referendum” does not recognize and the United Nations.