Having seized Crimea illegally in 2014, Russia contravened all ten of the Helsinki Final Act’s founding principles, including the principle of inviolability of borders.

“The United States remains deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation in Crimea. In 2014 when Russia illegally seized Crimea, it contravened all ten of the Helsinki Final Act’s founding principles, including the idea that no country should change the borders of another by force. Crimea is part of Ukraine, and Russia’s attempts to assert otherwise are rejected by the international community,” Political Counselor at U.S. Mission to OSCE Gregory Macris said at the OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

The US diplomat recalled that earlier UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had published a report on the human rights situation in occupied Crimea, listing numerous abuses by Russia. “Russian occupiers in Crimea engage in abuses with impunity, and the Russian Federation refuses to answer for these abuses,” Macris stated.

The report reminds that at least 11 disappearances remain unsolved, with one activist found dead and there have been 186 raids on Crimean Tatar homes, schools, mosques, and businesses.

“The international community must bear witness and document Russia’s daily abuses in occupied Crimea. The United States joins the calls for access for independent, international organizations to monitor the human rights situation there. We call on Russian authorities to grant immediate access to Crimea to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, the High Commissioner on National Minorities, ODIHR, and other OSCE bodies, as well as the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and other international mechanisms that seek to monitor the situation on the ground in Crimea,” the U.S. Mission to OSCE stated.

Macris stressed that Russia’s assurances that “all is well” in Crimea were not credible, nor is its pledge to respect human rights there.

“The United States and other members of the international community will not let developments in other parts of the globe deter our attention and focus from what is going on in Crimea,” he added.

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