Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has warned that the Kremlin shouldn’t be allowed to legitimize its occupation of Crimea and its ongoing annexation of the Azov Sea, following reports that Russia would allow European monitors to observe freedom of navigation through the Kerch Strait.

Speaking at a press briefing with his German counterpart Heiko Maas on Jan. 18 in Kyiv, Klimkin said the proposed monitoring mission must be based on the standpoint that Russia had usurped the sovereign rights of Ukraine.