Kiev Claims It Had Right To Block Water Supply From Dnieper River To Crimea

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2019) Kiev had the right to cut off Crimea's access to water from the Dnieper river because there is enough fresh water to meet the needs of the peninsula's population, the permanent representative for the Ukrainian president, Anton Korynevych, said while commenting on a reminder from the Russian authorities regarding Crimea's legal right the river's water.

Permanent Representative of Crimea to the President of Russia Georgy Muradov said on Monday that Kiev violated international humanitarian law and the Flow of International Water Law by cutting off the supply of Dnieper water to Crimea after it rejoined Russia in 2014. He said Crimea had a legal right to Dnieper water coming from Ukraine since the source of the river was in central Russia.

"The Dnieper river does not flow through the territory of Crimea. Ukraine did not block the Dnieper river, but blocked the technological structure (canal) located on the territory of Ukraine.

Ukraine has every right to do so. By all estimates, there is enough fresh water in Crimea for the needs of the population," Korynevych wrote on his Facebook page.

Before Crimea's reunification with Russia in 2014, Ukraine provided up to 85 percent of the peninsula's fresh water needs through the North Crimean Canal, which is fed by the Dnieper river.

The Dnieper is the fourth longest river in Europe after the Volga, Danube and Ural. Its source is from the Smolensk region of Russia. It also flows through Belarus and Ukraine, where it then continues into the Black Sea.

Crimea held a referendum in March 2014 in which almost 97 percent of those who voted chose to join Russia. The results of the vote and Crimea's subsequent reunification with Russia are viewed by Ukraine and the West as illegitimate. Moscow, however, insists that the Crimean vote was administered in accordance with international law.