The Crimean peninsula can never be returned to Ukraine, notwithstanding the fact that it was “annexed,” Czech President Milos Zeman said in answering a reader’s question in the Czech newspaper Parlamentni Listy.

“[Nikita] Khrushchev committed an unforgivable stupidity and the world’s politicians acknowledge today that Crimea cannot be given back to Ukraine,” Zeman said, referring to the Soviet leader who in 1954 made Crimea part of Ukraine, which was then a part of the Soviet Union.

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At the same time, the Czech president stressed that he believed Crimea was, indeed, “annexed” by Russia in 2014.

“It is doubtless that agreements guaranteeing Ukraine’s territorial integrity were breached,” he said, responding to a question from a reader who argued that Crimea had historically been a part of Russia and was thus just “returned,” and not “annexed.”

Zeman had urged the EU to accept the Crimean Republic’s accession into the Russian Federation immediately after it took place in 2014, saying that no one should expect the region’s return to Ukraine in the foreseeable future.

He has also repeatedly spoken out against the anti-Russian sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU and US over Crimea and the Ukrainian crisis.

Most recently, at the opening ceremony of an annual agricultural fair in Ceske Budejovice in late August, he urged the Czech government to seek ways to lift anti-Russian sanctions, stressing that the US embargo on Cuba had demonstrated that these kinds of measures were ineffective.

Zeman was also the only Western leader who came to Russia to attend the 2015 celebrations marking the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. </s> Crimea cannot be returned to Ukraine, Czech president says

PRAGUE, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Ukraine cannot get back the Crimea peninsula, although Russia took it by annexation, Czech President Milos Zeman was quoted as saying.

Russia annexed Crimea, which includes the strategic port of Sevastopol where its Black Sea Fleet has been based, in 2014, prompting the European Union and United States to impose economic and political sanctions on various Russian companies and officials.

Zeman has spoken out against the EU sanctions and has regularly expressed pro-Russian views. He was the only Western leader to attend the May 2015 celebrations in Moscow to mark the end of World War Two.

"An annexation means breaching international agreements and it is doubtless that agreements guaranteeing Ukraine's territorial integrity were breached," Zeman said in a response to a reader's question published by www.parlamentnilisty.cz.

"On the other hand, I agree with you that (Soviet leader Nikita) Khrushchev made an unforgivable silly thing and world's politicians acknowledge today that Crimea cannot be given back to Ukraine," Zeman said. He did not specify who those politicians were.

Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, in 1954.

The Czech government, which has the main say in the foreign policy of the EU country, has followed the common stance of the bloc regarding the sanctions on Russia.

The United States expanded its sanctions over the Crimea annexation on September 1, adding dozens of people and companies, some of them involved in building a multi-billion dollar bridge to link the Russian mainland with the peninsula.

This week, Russia has started major military exercise involving the Black Sea and Caspian fleets with 12,500 troops taking part. (Reporting by Robert Muller) </s> The European Union has imposed asset freezes on six Russian firms for their involvement in the construction of a new road-and-rail bridge linking Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula, which the bloc says is illegal.

Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 after Ukraine's pro-Russian president was toppled in an uprising. The West condemned the seizure as an illegal annexation and imposed sanctions on Moscow.

After the annexation, the Kremlin ordered the building of a $3.6 million bridge to link the peninsula to Russia.

The bridge, part of which was unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin in May, has drawn strong rebukes from the EU which says it is a further violation of Ukraine's sovereignty.

A statement from the EU Council, which sets the bloc's foreign and security policy, named six firms that will have their assets in the EU frozen. EU persons and entities will not be able to make funds available to them, it said.

The companies include three firms — PJSC Mostotrest, SGM and Stroygazmontazh Most OOO — controlled by billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, President Vladimir Putin's former

Judo sparring partner. Construction firm CJSC VAD, engineering firm GPSM and the Zaliv Shipyard were also named.

"Through their actions they supported the consolidation of Russia's control over the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula, which in turn further undermines the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine," the Council said.

Ukraine's foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin said he welcomed the additional sanctions.

"Important warning also for European businesses not to go down same slippery slope," Klimkin wrote on Twitter.

Russia criticized the sanctions, saying they targeted people living on the peninsula.

"This is a policy of undermining, directed against Crimea's residents," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.

Rotenberg brushed aside the sanctions in a social media post, saying work was underway to complete the railway section of the bridge.

"We're all proud of our work and if someone doesn't like it that's not our problem," a spokesman for Rotenberg quoted him on the Telegram messaging service as saying. </s> The European Union has imposed asset freezes on six Russian firms involved in the construction of a new road-and-rail bridge.

The bridge which links Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula is said to be illegal.

Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 during an uprising which toppled Ukraine’s pro-Russian president.

The West condemned the move as an illegal annexation and imposed sanctions on Moscow.

The 3.6 billion dollars bridge across the Kerch strait, part of which was unveiled by Russian President, Vladimir Putin, in May, has drawn strong rebukes from the EU which says it is a further violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty.

The six companies cited in Tuesday’s statement from the Council of the European Union include construction firms PJSC Mostotrest and CJSC VAD.

“The firms will have their assets in the EU frozen and EU persons and entities will not be able to make funds available to them.

“Through their actions they supported the consolidation of Russia’s control over the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula, which in turn further undermines the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine,” the council said.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Pavlo Klimkin, said he welcomed the additional sanctions.

“Important warning also for European businesses not to go down same slippery slope,” Klimkin wrote on Twitter.

The other companies targeted are engineering firms GPSM and Zaliv Shipyard, and construction groups SGM and Stroygazmontazh Most OOO. </s> Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has ordered the creation of a body to prepare a lawsuit against Russia for damages caused by separatists whom Moscow supports in the Donbas region and for its illegal annexation of the Crimea Peninsula.

"The ongoing armed aggression of Russia brings to the Ukrainian soil new immeasurable human suffering every day, infrastructure is destroyed, enterprises and economic potential of the Donbas and Crimea are destroyed,” he wrote on August 1 on Facebook.

"Therefore, we should not hesitate even for a minute with the formation of Ukraine's consolidated claim to Russia to compensate for the damage inflicted," he said.

Poroshenko said he asked his cabinet to take steps for the “speedy creation” of an interagency coordinating body based on the law of reintegration adopted by Kyiv in January.

That law, he wrote, "clearly confirms Ukraine's devotion to a peaceful settlement and reflects my ideology of peaceful reintegration of the occupied region."

Moscow's takeover of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and its military, political, and economic support for separatists in eastern Ukraine prompted the United States, the European Union, and others to impose sanctions on Russia.

More than 10,300 people have been killed since April 2014 in the conflict between Ukrainian forces and the Russia-backed separatists in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Although Moscow denies interfering in Ukraine's domestic affairs, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November 2016 determined the conflict to be "an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation."

At a summit earlier this month, Ukraine and the European Union, while agreeing on the need for reforms in Kyiv, also condemned Russia’s seizure of Crimea and its backing of the separatists.

On July 31, the EU expanded its sanctions against Moscow to include companies that helped build a bridge from Russia to Crimea.

"I am glad that my strategy was supported by the EU leaders during the Ukraine-EU summit, expressing their readiness to take the patronage of the restoration of the settlements of the Donbas," Poroshenko said in his statement.

It is not known how effective such a suit against Russia would be or whether Moscow would even acknowledge it.

Kyiv in the past has filed cases against Moscow with various international bodies with little success. In January 2017, Ukraine filed a case against Russia with the Court of Justice, the highest United Nations court.

Moscow in the past has rejected international rulings over its Ukraine-related actions, calling them "biased and politically motivated."

With reporting by Interfax and Unian </s> The $3.6 billion bridge, built by a contractor owned by President Vladimir Putin’s childhood friend Arkady Rotenberg, was unveiled in May in a move to integrate the peninsula into Russia. Rotenberg was among the first Russian businessmen to be put under Western visa bans and asset freezes after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from neighboring Ukraine in 2014.

The European Union has levied sanctions on six Russian companies involved in the construction of a bridge connecting mainland Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula.

The European Council said it has frozen the assets of six entities involved in the Crimean bridge’s construction, including two companies owned by Rotenberg — Mostotrest and Stroygazmontazh.

“Through their actions they supported the consolidation of Russia's control over the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula, which in turn further undermines the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine,” the European Council said Tuesday.

Other companies to be hit by the latest EU sanctions include a Stroygazmontazh subsidiary, a St. Petersburg-based construction firm, a shipyard involved in railway construction and a contractor that built a highway over the bridge.

Speaking in Crimea on Monday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the annexed peninsula had completed the “unprecedented” task of being integrated into Russia’s legal, infrastructural and economic space.

“You can say that the most difficult stage has passed. We’ve entered into a more relaxed and planned mode of operation,” he said at a cabinet session in Sevastopol.

Reuters contributed reporting to this article. </s> Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday issued a decree to impose martial law on the country after Russian forces seized three Ukrainian naval vessels and their crews near the disputed Crimea region.

The bill needs parliamentary approval to go into force, with the Supreme Rada due to vote on the issue later on Monday. Martial law would mean, among other things, partial mobilization of the country's military and stepping up air defense — moves that raise fears of a military escalation in the region.

The Ukrainian navy says six of its seamen were injured in the Russian action, during which Russian border guards opened fire on the vessels in the Kerch Strait, a waterway between Russian-annexed Crimea and mainland Russia that flows between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

Read more: Do sanctions against Russia work?

The Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov are designated as shared territorial waters by a 2003 treaty, but Russia has asserted more control over the waterways since it annexed Crimea in 2014 in a move that drew widespread condemnation and international sanctions.

In recent weeks, Russia has increased its military presence in the area and started inspecting all vessels traveling to or from Ukrainian ports, causing dayslong delays and disrupting trade.

Ukraine had previous detained a Russian fishing vessel travelling from Crimea in March.

Read more: The Odessa massacre: Remembering the 'Holocaust by bullets'

In the latest incident, both sides have traded accusations of the other's being in breach of international norms, with Moscow saying Kyiv failed to obtain authorization for the passage of its vessels, and Kyiv claiming Moscow had ignored a notification sent by the ships.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on Monday that the captured seamen should be treated as prisoners of war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has so far not said whether Moscow will accord them that status.

Tensions between the former Soviet republic of Ukraine and Russia have been growing since 2013, when large-scale protests led to the ousting of pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych. The Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and a Moscow-backed insurgency in Ukraine's east have further fanned the flames.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> KYIV -- Ukraine has sued Russia at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, accusing Moscow of acts of "terrorism" and "discrimination" related to its backing separatists in eastern Ukraine and its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula



The Foreign Ministry filed the lawsuit late on January 16 at the request of President Petro Poroshenko.

It claims that Russia has violated the UN Convention For The Suppression Of The Financing Of Terrorism by supporting separatists fighting government forces in a war that has killed more than 9,750 people since April 2014.

It also claims that Russia has oppressed Crimean Tatars, an ethnic minority whose homeland is Crimea.

"For three years, Russia has been committing the illegal annexation of Crimea, illegal occupation of the east of our country in the territory of [the] Donetsk and Luhansk regions, [and] implementing the policy of elimination and discrimination in Crimea," Poroshenko said at a meeting with Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev and three other top officials.



Armed Russians "have committed numerous terrorist attacks affecting hundreds of thousands of innocent people forced to leave their home," he said.

"Russia must pay the price for its aggression," Poroshenko said.

Ukrainian authorities call the nearly three-year-old conflict in eastern Ukraine an "antiterrorist operation," and often refer to those fighting against government forces as "terrorists."

Neither Kyiv nor Russia, which denies it has backed the separatists with troops or weapons despite mounting evidence, has formally declared war.



Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariana Betsa told RFE/RL that the lawsuit was the result of three years of "titanic work" by Ukrainian authorities. It is the first lawsuit filed with the ICJ by Kyiv, which has sent at least four lawsuits against Russia to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.



Ukraine is aware that the ICJ may not consider the lawsuit for years, if ever, Betsa said.

"But we have hope," she said, adding that it is "inevitable" that Russia will bear responsibility "for crimes it has committed." </s> Russia to defend itself against charges it illegally annexed Crimea in suit seeking damages for shelling of civilians.

Ukraine has filed a lawsuit at the UN's top court accusing Russia of sponsoring "terrorism" and illicitly funding separatist rebel groups - charges Russia denies.

Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014, and fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine the following month between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian government forces, a conflict in which close to 10,000 people have been killed.

In the case announced on Tuesday by the International Court of Justice, Ukraine accused Russia of "intervening militarily in Ukraine, financing acts of terrorism and violating the human rights of millions of Ukraine's citizens".

Ukraine further alleged that the takeover of Crimea "brazenly defied the UN Charter, seizing a part of Ukraine's sovereign territory by military force".

Russia has repeatedly denied sending troops or military equipment to eastern Ukraine.

In Moscow, its foreign ministry was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying that Russia would use all available means of legal defence against the suit.

The filing itself has no direct consequences, though a finding by the court in Ukraine's favour could be enforceable in some national courts, theoretically triggering legal steps to freeze or seize Russian assets.

Ukraine also asked the court to order "full reparation" for the "shelling of civilians" in certain towns in eastern Ukraine and for the July 2014 downing of flight MH17.

READ MORE: Life in the shadows of the Crimea blockade

In September last year, investigators said that the Malaysian airliner shot down in eastern Ukraine had been hit by a missile launched from an area controlled by Russia-backed rebels.

The findings challenged Russia's suggestion that the flight - en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur - was brought down by the Ukrainian military.

All 298 people on board, most of them Dutch citizens, were killed.

No date was immediately announced for hearings in the lawsuit, which is likely to take many months to complete.
Czech President Milos Zeman says in an interview that the Crimean peninsula can never be returned to Ukraine, notwithstanding the fact that it was de facto annexed by Russia.