The United Kingdom believes the annexation of Crimea by Russia was illegal and illegitimate and it remains so one year after it happened, British ambassador in Romania Paul Brummell tells AGERPRES in a recent interview.
“Our message would be that what was illegal about one year ago remains illegal and illegitimate today; we maintain a constant and unchanging message to Russia to return Crimea to Ukraine,” Brummell says one year after the annexation of Crimea by Russia.
In the interview, Ambassador Brummell mentions the need for the region to return to Ukraine, as well as the sanctions against Russia. He says Crimea has to return to Ukraine; there is no deadline for the demand; the annexation was and remains an illegal and legitimate process and the UK believes the region has to return to Ukraine as soon as possible.
AGERPRES: This March is one year since Russia annexed Crimea to itself. What does this mean for the security of the region and for world security and if you can make an overview of what that meant?
Paul Brummell: I think that the United Kingdom together with our EU partners have viewed that Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014 was illegal and illegitimate, so one year on it remains illegal and illegitimate. They violated the territorial integrity of Ukraine and ran counter to the United Nations charter and to the Helsinki Final Act.
AGERPRES: Seen from the outside, it looked like it was something that happened overnight. It was very fast. If the UK were to think about it or the European Community had had anything to regret in terms of letting that happen? What should have been done?
Paul Brummell: As you say, the referendum organised by Russia was something very hastily prepared. There was no truly independent international monitoring process. It was very much a referendum that was not so legitimate and it was a referendum started on a basis of a false claim in the first place, which was that the Russian speakers in Crimea were being discriminated against. International observers, key organisations like the OECD High Commissioner for National Minorities had no evidence of that at all, and actually concerns for the reason later since the referendum around human rights issue such as regarding the Tartar community of Crimea. More…