Ukrainian President: Putin’s visits will not make Crimea Russian
Commenting on Putin’s trip to Crimea for an extensive meeting of the State Council Presidium of the Russian Federation Ukrainian, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stated that Putin’s visits to Crimea will not make the peninsular Russian.
“We consider these Russian president’s visits as a gross violation of international law. I would like to emphasize separately that these visits - and I hope they hear us in Russia – will not make Crimea Russian. Crimea is Ukraine. It was and always will be,” said Poroshenko, while answering journalists' questions during a joint press conference with the President of Slovakia, Andrej Kiska.
Poroshenko added that Russian leadership ignored international law, and due to this, the West imposed sanctions against the Russian Federation, which will be maintained until the situation changes. He also said that Ukraine will also impose sanctions because of the so-called "elections" in the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s republics.
The president said that he had instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to respond to Putin’s visit to Crimea.
Putin convened the meeting of the State Council Presidium of the Russian Federation at the Mriya Resort (Mriya Resort & SPA) about 20 km from Yalta. This hotel was on the United States sanctions list due to its connection with the Russian Sberbank, which was included in the list of sectoral sanctions on September 12, 2014.
Putin’s previous visit to the Crimea was on August 4, when he attended the “Opera in Chersonesus” festival. Then the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry sent a protest note to the Russian Federation.