Sanctions against the Russian Federation must remain until Moscow returns Crimea to Kyiv, UK and U.S. envoys to the United Nations, Matthew Rycroft and Nikki Haley, have said.

"The United States continues to condemn and call for an immediate end to the Russian occupation of Crimea," said Nikki Haley, President Donald Trump's envoy to the world body. "Crimea is a part of Ukraine. Our Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control over the peninsula to Ukraine."

"We frequently hear from the Russian government, as we did today, that all the problems in eastern Ukraine are the consequence of actions by the Ukrainian government. This is simply not the case. It is an inversion of reality," Rycroft said.