Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania on Crimea
The Republic of Lithuania expresses strong support to Ukraine's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. Russian Federation's military aggression, launched a year ago in the Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea and now continuing in eastern Ukraine, is a blatant violation of international law: the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, 1994 Budapest Memorandum and other international agreements, as well as Russian and Ukrainian bilateral agreements. Such targeted military actions not only break bilateral and multilateral agreements on Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity assurance, but also pose a threat to the security and stability throughout Europe.
The international community does not recognize the annexation of the Crimea, and condemns the illegal actions of Russia in Ukraine. Resolution 68/262 of March 27, 2014 adopted by the United Nations General Assembly endorsed Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and condemned Russia's actions as infringing international law and violating the sovereignty of Ukraine, reasserted the UN commitment to recognize Crimea as legal part of Ukrainian territory and reaffirmed non-recognition of the results of the Crimean 'referendum'.
Lithuania condemns the illegal annexation of a part of the sovereign territory of Ukraine and its illegal incorporation into the Russian Federation. Our firm and unequivocal statement is: Crimea is Ukraine.
Lithuania, which has close historical ties with the Tatar community and cherishes its rights and freedoms, strongly condemns the systematic human rights violations, in particular in respect of the Crimean Tatars, in the illegally annexed the Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea. We express our concern at the increase of restrictions of the media in the Crimea. We urge to allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights monitoring mission in Crimea to objectively assess the human rights violations by the occupying authorities. Once again, we call on the Russian Federation to cease the illegal annexation of the Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea and withdraw its military forces from the territory of Ukraine, comply with international law and respect human rights.
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