DISINFO: Crimea was reunited with homeland Russia
SUMMARY
Canada has imposed sanctions on Russian persons and entities concerning Crimea. However, Ottawa is ignoring the objective reality that the citizens of Crimea voted to return and reunite with their homeland Russia.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the illegal annexation of Crimea, claiming that Crimea voted to rejoin Russia through a legal referendum.
It was not a "legal accession", but an illegal annexation of the Ukrainian territory. No international body recognises the so-called referendum in Crimea. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution entitled “Territorial integrity of Ukraine”, stating that the referendum in Crimea was not valid and could not serve as a basis for any change in the status of the peninsula. On 17 December 2018, the UN General Assembly confirmed its non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea.
Following the covert invasion of “little green men,” power in Crimea was vested in a makeshift executive headed by Sergey Aksenov. The new Crimean regime conducted the referendum hastily and at gunpoint, barred impartial observers from entering the peninsula, and instead invited dozens of fringe politicians and activists to “monitor” the procedure, most of them far-right Kremlin loyalists.
The European Union does not recognise and continues to strongly condemn this violation of international law, which remains a challenge to the international security order. In response to the illegal annexation of Crimea, the EU has imposed restrictive measures against the Russian Federation. In June 2020, the European Council decided to renew the sanctions introduced in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation until 23 June 2021.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that the Crimean referendum was legal, that Crimea has never been Ukraine, it returned to Russia on a legal referendum.