Kiev Should Not Try To Meddle In Russian Officials' Visits To Crimea - Foreign Ministry

Neither the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry nor any other country has the right to tell the Russian leadership when and how Russian officials should visit the country's regions, including Crimea, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday in a statement, commenting on the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's note of protest after Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Crimea

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th March, 2019) Neither the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry nor any other country has the right to tell the Russian leadership when and how Russian officials should visit the country's regions, including Crimea, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday in a statement, commenting on the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's note of protest after Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Crimea.

On Monday, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that it had sent a note of protest to the Russian Foreign Ministry over Putin's Monday visit to Crimea. On the same day, Putin arrived in Sevastopol where he took part in the opening ceremony of a thermal power station and after that visited the celebrations of the fifth anniversary of Crimea's reunification with Russia in Simferopol.

"Concerning the note of protest mentioned in the statement of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and sent to the Russian Foreign Ministry, we are returning such notes without consideration and reaction.

We would like to point out that neither the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry nor anyone else has a right to tell the Russian leadership when and how it should schedule visits to regions of their own country," the statement said.

Crimea rejoined Russia on March 18, 2014, after 97 percent of those participating in a regional referendum voted for the reunification. Ukraine and the majority of Western countries continue to consider Crimea as Ukrainian territory, accusing Russia of its illegal annexation. Russian President Putin has said that the issue of Crimea's territorial belonging is "historically closed," since Crimean residents decided to rejoin Russia in accordance with democratic procedures.