Walker: I see No possibility of negotiations with Russia on Crimea

The American diplomat had heard from Russian officials that the Crimea was not even discussed

While Kiev is considering a new format of negotiations on the Crimea, former US special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker now sees no prerequisites for international dialogue with Russia on the de-occupation of the Ukrainian Peninsula.

He told about it in interview “Radio Freedom”.

According to him, one way out – the strong international pressure on Moscow.

“I would formulate it somewhat differently. I talked about this with Russian officials, and they refuse to discuss something. They say, “No, no, Crimea is part of Russia, there is nothing to talk about”. I don’t see any possibility for future negotiations, but there must be strong international pressure on Russia. Here we need USA, UK, France, Germany, and NATO. Turkey is an important player. We all need to constantly emphasize the problem of the capture of the Crimea and to intensify pressure on Russia to stop the occupation and returned to the territory. They are not going to discuss it now, so we need to increase that pressure,” said Walker.

We will note, in Russia regularly insist that the Ukrainian Peninsula is supposedly their territory and the issue of de-occupation is not even discussed.

As reported “Today”, recently the Minister of foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba has revealed a strategy for the liberation of the Crimea. He believes that the issue of de-occupation of the Peninsula it is impossible to raise the Minsk talks. We need to push Russia to the liberation of the Crimea.

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.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine officially declared on 20 February 2014 beginning of the temporary occupation of Crimea and Sevastopol by Russia. 7 Oct 2015 the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed the law. International organizations have recognized the occupation and annexation of Crimea as illegal and have condemned Russia’s actions. Western countries have imposed a series of economic sanctions.

In turn the international criminal court (the Hague Tribunal) has ruled that Russia’s actions during the occupation of Crimea is regarded as a military conflict against Ukraine. In the Hague say that the international conflict can be investigated according to the norms of the Rome Statute.

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