US does not recognise ‘Russia’s attempt to annex Crimea’: report
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
03.07.2018 12:53
The United States does not recognise Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and will not lift sanctions against Moscow until the peninsula is returned, the White House press secretary has said, according to a report.
“We do not recognise Russia’s attempt to annex Crimea,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders was quoted as saying on Monday.
“We agree to disagree with Russia on that front,” she added, as quoted by the Politico news service.
Her comments came ahead of a planned meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Finland later this month amid concern that Trump could recognise Moscow’s claim to the territory during bilateral discussions, Politico reported.
Sanders told a news conference on Monday that US sanctions against Russia over Crimea “will remain in place until Russia returns the peninsula to Ukraine,” according to Politico.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 after a referendum that the Ukrainian authorities and the West said was illegal. Earlier, Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms seized strategic facilities on the Black Sea peninsula from the Ukrainian army and local authorities.
Four years after Moscow annexed Crimea, Poland's foreign ministry in March called on Russia "to stop the occupation of Crimea and withdraw from its strategy of using force as a means of pursuing foreign policy."
(gs)
Source: politico.eu