DISINFO: Kyiv considers Crimea “its own” contrary to all international standards
DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS
  • Outlet: riafan.ru (archived)*
  • Date of publication: May 21, 2020
  • Outlet language(s): Russian
  • Reported in: Issue 200
  • Countries / regions discussed: Ukraine, Russia
Tags:
Kerch illegal annexation Crimea War in Ukraine

DISINFO: Kyiv considers Crimea “its own” contrary to all international standards

SUMMARY

Zelenskyy has to work out what his “masters” tell him, including on the Kerch provocation. He was told that there were no clues, that everyone understood the meaning of this provocation, based on the fact that Kyiv considers Crimea “its own”, contrary to all international standards, and they were still obliged to complain about Russia. Allegedly it was Russia, and not Ukraine, that violated the law of the sea. This is done in order to raise the anti-Russian wave, again and again, and to support Ukraine on the world agenda, although in reality neither this country nor its problems are interesting to anyone in the world and cause only irritation.

RESPONSE

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the illegal annexation of Crimea. No international body recognises the so-called referendum, announced 27th of February 2014 and held less than three weeks later. A part of this article also repeats the recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative on the Kerch incident. On 25 November 2018, border patrol boats belonging to Russia’s FSB security service seized two small Ukrainian armoured artillery vessels and a tugboat and their crews after shooting at them, wounding several Ukrainian servicemen and arresting 24 members. Russia argued that they were in Russian waters. However, a bilateral treaty between Russia and Ukraine, signed in 2003 and ratified by Russia in 2004, governs the use of the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov, which in the treaty is considered to be the “internal waters” of both Russia and Ukraine. On 25 May 2019, the United Nations Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ordered Russia to immediately release Ukrainian sailors and allow them to return to Ukraine. In addition, the EU urged Russia to release the captured crew. On 27 March 2014, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution which stated that the referendum in Crimea was not valid and could not serve as a basis for any change in the status of the peninsula. Read the EU statement on the sixth anniversary of Crimea's annexation.

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Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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