The Foreign Ministry in a statement on Monday expressed support for adding eight new Russians to the EU sanctions list for their role in undermining Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and fomented a separatist conflict in Donbas – the eastern region of the country – which was condemned by the West and met with EU and US sanctions against Moscow and Russian officials.
On Monday, the EU added eight additional people to the list, including Russian judges, prosecutors and security officers involved in enforcing Russian law in Crimea and Sevastopol. The EU said their actions undermine Ukraine’s territorial integrity, its sovereignty and independence.
According to the EU, those persons have been making biased or politically-motivated decisions and have persecuted opponents of the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol.
The Polish Foreign Ministry said that the EU Council’s decision was “a manifestation of the unity and consistent policy of the European Union.”
“The introduction of the Russian legal order on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula is contrary to the generally applicable provisions of humanitarian law. The Russian judicial authorities have been actively involved in an organised campaign to persecute the minority of the Crimean Tatars because its representatives support the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine in Crimea and Sevastopol,” the ministry wrote.
“At the same time, reports by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights point to numerous and well documented instances of human rights violations by the Russian occupation authorities,” the ministry went on to state.
“The Republic of Poland consistently supports Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, in accordance with United Nations General Assembly Resolution 68/262 adopted on 27 March 2014, and reaffirms its lasting commitment not to recognise — now and in the future — the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation,” the statement reads.
In total, the EU has imposed sanctions on 185 people and 48 entities for undermining Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
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