US does not recognise Russia's crime annex

The United States issued a formal declaration confirming the rejection of the Ukrainian Crimea Peninsula from Russia.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Russia is trying “to undermine an international principle dividing democratic states”.

His statement followed recent contradictory remarks by President Donald Trump and administration officials about the possibility of changing Washington's stance.

The United States confirms as policy their refusal to recognise the Kremlin's claims of sovereignty over territory that has strongly confiscated and contrary to international law”, said the Pompeii Declaration, titled “The Crime Declaration”.

“In agreement with allies, partners and the international community, the United States opposes the Russian bias of the Crimea and vows that they will continue this policy until Ukraine's territorial integrity is restored”, the statement stressed.

In a statement later, in front of the US Senate of Foreign Relations Committee, Pompo said there will be no relief for Moscow from the sanctions imposed on the US for annexing the Crime, “until Russia returns control of this Ukrainian peninsula”.

Russia has annexed Crime, the Black Sea peninsula, since 2014. It has also supported separatists east of Ukraine, fighting government forces. This war has claimed over 10,300 lives and has forced both the US and the European Union to impose sanctions on Russia.

It wasn't immediately clear what the statement was going on, but Pompeo, in his announcement, referred to the Welles Declaration in 1940. This act has been a U.S. decision not to recognize the Soviet annexation of three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This policy has lasted 50 years.

Disrecognition of the Crimea has also been the policy of the former US president's administration, Barack Obama, but Pompeo's statement appears to be an attempt to clarify the current administration's stance after a diplomatic confusion.

Asked by reporters on June 29th, if reports to prevent the opposition to the crime annexation are true, Trump said: “

Trump has responded similarly even when asked whether he will consider lifting US sanctions on Russia.

We'll see what Russia does”, Trump said.

His statements have caused concerns in Europe, and especially in Ukraine, that Trump could accept the capture of a territory on the continent for the first time since World War II.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry wrote in Titter that it welcomes the US position on Ukraine's “territorial integrity and the non-recognition of Russia's attempt to annex the Crime”.

“No one has the right to change the borders of the free sovereign states by force”, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

In a brief response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “We know the value of such statements”.

Maja Kocijanciq, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Moghrini, said the US statement “illustrates its strong and principled position on the illegal annexation of the Crimea by Russia”.