On August 15, 2018 the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in ARC Borys Babin and the Chief Consultant of the Department of International Connections Taisia Tkachenko discussed within the Mandate of the Mission the Crimean situation with Peter Chilvers and Irene Ballesteros as the monitoring officers of Kherson Team of SMM OSCE in Ukraine.
The systemic violations of the international law relating to trade navigation in the Sea of Azov by the Russian authorities, particularly – the groundless stops and “inspections” done by the border guards service of the RF FSC during their passage through the Kerch Straight into direction of the seaports of Berdyansk and Mariupol were observed during the discussion. Such illegal activity discriminates against the trade navigation and has significant cost implications for exceeding the deadline for delivery of the cargo. Such situation has all signs of naval blockade.
The neglect of the international law by the occupying Russian authorities in the context of illegal arrest of Ukrainian fishing vessel ЯМК-0041, which was engaged fishing in the Black Sea and the aspects of illegal three month long detention by the punitive entities of five crew members as hostages in the temporarily occupied Crimea was the next theme for discussion.
The Permanent Representative drew attention to the complex challenges of water supply to Crimea, particularly on the abuse of artesian water for technological needs of chemical industry, producing goods for military use of RF. Such artificial destruction of natural resources causes decreasing of harvesting and declining of agriculture in the occupied peninsula.
The insensitivity of the state-aggressor to existing social and economic living standards of the population of Crimea due to the total militarization of the peninsula and rapid development of military infrastructure and gradual transformation of Crimea into the military base of Russian aggression was stated. The representatives of OSCE noted the efforts undertaken by Ukraine in the national and international levels in order to condemn the actions of the occupying authorities of the state aggressor and bringing it to justice. Particular attention was paid to the complaints of Ukraine versus Russia submitted to European Court of Human Rights.
The current activity and the results of work of the juridical and law enforcement bodies of Ukraine on Crimean issues were discussed during the meeting as well.