Crimean Lawmaker Calls US Drone Missions Near Peninsula 'Brazen Provocation'

Yury Gempel, the head of the Crimean parliament's committee on inter-ethnic relations and public diplomacy, in a comment to Sputnik characterized surveillance flights by unmanned US aircraft near the peninsula's borders as a provocation

SIMFEROPOL (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2020) Yury Gempel, the head of the Crimean parliament's committee on inter-ethnic relations and public diplomacy, in a comment to Sputnik characterized surveillance flights by unmanned US aircraft near the peninsula's borders as a provocation.

Earlier in the day, a security source told Sputnik that since the beginning of 2020, US Global Hawk drones had been performing surveillance flights instead of Ukrainian ones on account of Washington sharing part of its intelligence data with Kiev.

"You have to treat your neighbor the way you want to be treated in return. Unfortunately, neither Ukraine nor the US follow this neighborliness principle.

The US incites tensions at the Crimean border with [the use of] its drones. All of it is another brazen provocation," Gempel said.

The lawmaker has promised that US drones would be shot down if they are found illegally crossing into Russian airspace.

Crimea rejoined Russia after nearly 97 percent of voters supported the move in the March 2014 referendum. The majority of Western countries, as well as Ukraine, have not recognized the referendum results and placed sanctions on Russia. Moscow has repeatedly stated that Crimea's residents decided to rejoin Russia through a democratic procedure, as the referendum was conducted in compliance with international law.