Ukraine to file lawsuits to intl courts over Crimea annexation in coming weeks
Within the next two weeks, Ukraine will submit lawsuits to international courts in connection with the annexation of Crimea by Russia, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.
"Within the next two weeks you'll see a number of legal initiatives that Ukraine and the enterprises, to which we will provide our legal backing, will ensure the legal defense of the state interests of Ukraine in line with many conventions, which we will submit to various international courts," the president said in an interview with Ukrainian TV channels aired on Sunday evening.
According to him, Crimea should remain top of the agenda of the partner countries of Ukraine. "And we have made several major breakthroughs in this matter in the past few days. We expect a PACE mission to arrive in Crimea to verify the observance of human rights there, including in respect to representatives of the Crimean Tatar people," Poroshenko said.
He said that Ukraine has stated its clear proposals for the discussion of the Crimean issue. The EU, the United States, and the guarantor countries of the Budapest Memorandum should be engaged in this process, Poroshenko added. "We can call this format 'Geneva plus' and immediately start the consultations on the organization of this process," the president said.
According to Poroshenko, the focus should be on the release of illegally detained people, the observance of the rights of Crimean Tatars and the roadmap for the de-occupation of Crimea, which will envisage a great number of steps, starting from the maintenance of international pressure, the action plan on the sanctions, and ending with litigations.