Russia prevents Ukraine from creating international platforms on Crimea issues – MFA

Russia blocks the discussion of issues of the de-occupation of the Crimea, which are discussed by the G-7 or the “Geneva format” with the involvement of the United States.

As reported Ukrayinska Pravda (Ukrainian Truth), this was stated today by Pavlo Klimkin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, in response to the question of Refat Chubarov, Deputy from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc political party, during the “hour of questions to the Government” in the Verkhovna Rada.

Chubarov noted that on April 6 a massive raid on Crimean Tatars was organized in the central market of Simferopol.

“How are things with the idea voiced by the President about the creation of a separate international site across the Crimea – where, when and in what format will such platform start working?… When we will unite all issues related to the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine – Crimea, Donbass?…”, – he asked.

Klimkin answered that a resolution a resolution of the UN General Assembly on the violation of human rights in the Crimea already exists: “This is both a legal and a political basis for working with the UN agencies and other international organizations aimed at creating pressure (to Russia – ed.) and gaining access to the temporarily occupied Crimea”.

“Currently we are working with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and with the Council of Europe in order to realize this idea, while we are placing emphasis on human rights”, – said the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“Concerning yesterday’s events, we already informed our friends and partners in order to obtain an appropriate, most severe reaction”, – said Klimkin.

“The idea of creating a separate format concerns the idea of building it either on the G-7 platform with the involvement of the European Union, or with the involvement of the Geneva format (involving the United States and the EU – ed.). As of today we have the consent of all partners, except the Russian Federation, which is trying to completely block this issue”, – he said.

“Therefore we want to start with key issues that concern human rights – what we are doing on the international platforms. And gradually we will be adding other issues”, – said the Minister of Foreign Affairs.