21.03.2020, Moscow.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell’s statement on Crimea absurd and unfriendly during her weekly briefing on March 19.
“We consider it unacceptable to question the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation within its current borders,” Zakharova said.
She noted that in this way the Head of the European External Action Service repeats the Kiev authorities’ insinuations about environmental problems and the worsening of the human rights situation in Crimea.
Zakharova called accusations of “ecodemographic substitution in Crimea by resettling Russians there from other regions of the country” absurd, since about 10 thousand people moved to Crimea in 2019, of whom about 8 thousand moved from Ukraine.
Zakharova drew attention to the fact that the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy continues to promote the Ukrainian provocation in the Kerch Strait involving warships, made in November 2018.
And at the same time, the EU does not want to notice another upcoming provocation to break through the state border of Russia, Zakharova stressed. This is the “March on Crimea” on May 3, planned by the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People (organization banned in Russia). “We call for this not to be allowed,” said the Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrel said that the European Union continues not to recognize the Crimean Peninsula as Russian, and he criticized the “increasing militarization of the peninsula” on March 16.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
