Statement of the MFA of Ukraine

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine resolutely denounces the approaches made public in the Statement of the MFA of the Russian Federation regarding the Group of Support for Ukraine. The contents of the Statement and its tone, resembling that of an ultimatum, confirm that the Russian Federation is guided by the logic of an aggressor.

Proposals of the Russian Side are filled with the nihilism towards international law and lack of respect to it. They directly contradict the Principle of non-interference“in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state”, fixed in the Article 2 of the UN Charter. According to this principle, each state determines independently the form and structure of its government, political regime, etc.

The Russian demand that the right be recognized for Crimea to independently determine its destiny, is nothing else than another attempt to lay a shaky legal foundation under the commitment of an act of aggression against Ukraine in accordance with the definition of the UN General Assembly Resolution № 3314 (XXIX) adopted on December 14, 1974.

Russia’s actions contravene the principle of territorial integrity of our state and other fundamental norms of international law, the UN Charter, the Final Act of the CSCE, the Declaration of the Principles of International Law of 1970.

The ideas suggested in the document reflect an absolutely unacceptable approach - to redraw the borders of Ukraine, to deprive it of its sovereign right to domestic and foreign policy and to undermine the foundations of a system of international relations in the post-war, post-Communist and post-Soviet Europe.

Ukraine is open to negotiations on settling the situation in Crimea. But such negotiations can only take place if Ukraine’s participation is fully fledged and if the principles of territorial integrity and non-interference in domestic affairs of our state are respected.