For five years of the illegal annexation of Crimea, the invaders have turned the peninsula from a gem of the Black Sea into a black hole.

“I’ve visited Crimea twice, before its annexation, of course. In those days it was a gem, a pearl of the Black Sea. I was amazed by its beauty and people, who lived peacefully together and respected each other. After five years of Russian annexation, it is no longer a gem. It looks like a black hole. Isolated, occupied, annexed by the Russian Federation. It resembles the rest of the Russian Federation as there is no freedom of speech, there is persecution of the people, who disagree with the official policy of annexation and occupation, there are many political prisoners held in prisons both in Crimea and in Russia,” Belgian MEP Mark Demesmaeker, the member of the Friends of Ukraine group, said during a thematic workshop in the European Parliament “Crimea. Stolen Peninsula” on Tuesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

As the MEP noted, the Russian Federation actively continues to militarize the peninsula. According to him, the events in the Sea of Azov region in the fall of last year showed the true intentions of the Russian Federation - to destabilize Ukraine, do harm to it, strike at it, try to suppress the economy.

Mark Demesmaeker recalled that from the very beginning of the events the European Union had responded to the “hybrid” actions of Russia against Ukraine with a clear policy of non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea and imposed economic sanctions against the aggressor country. The European politician expressed the conviction that those sanctions would be extended.

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