Russian media manipulates Pompeo’s statement, Crimean sanctions refute lie
“Crimea is lost. World players understand this. Ukraine has given Crimea, and Russia is not one of those who can bring something back.” This alleged Ukrainian participant in one of the closed meetings allegedly with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his official visit to Kiev, quoted by nv.ua.
BA Comment
The information on nv.ua. is just another Russian hybrid. It is impossible for a high-ranking American statesman like Pompeo to repeat the Kremlin’s propaganda suggestions that Crimea is already irretrievably lost to Ukraine and it is not in the interest of the West to raise the subject again. In reality, US and Western actions refute such suggestions. Just a week ago, on January 29, Washington added eight more Russian nationals to the sanction list precisely because of the annexation of Crimea, as well as Russia’s Grand Service Express, a passenger rail service to the peninsula. Canada’s foreign ministry announced on January 30 that the country was imposing sanctions on six other Russian citizens related to holding “illegal elections in the territory of the occupied Crimea”. The EU has also introduced restrictive measures because of “a threat to Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence” following the elections in Crimea. Confirmation of sanctions, agreed and approved by the US, EU and Canada, shows that the topic of Crimea remains the focus of Western foreign policy, which remains in solidarity with Ukraine’s efforts to reclaim Crimea and overcome the conflict in the eastern territories of the country.