LITHUANIA ON BEHALF OF THE EUROPEAN UNION CONDEMNED RESTRICTIONS OF FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT IN THE OCCUPIED CRIMEAN REGION
Permanent Representative of the Republic of Lithuania, ambassador Giedrius Čekuolis, on behalf of the European Union, during the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation meeting raised concerns concerning the violation of freedom of movement in the Russian occupied Crimean region.
It was stressed, that many people - businessmen, students, journalists, NGO activists, members of the same family - have been barred from entering their home land by the Russian armed forces which executed illegal annexation of Crimea. Victims of this policy, which breaches Helsinki Final Act, include also Crimean Tatar leaders Mustafa Dzhemiliev and Refat Chubarov who have been barred from entering Crimea. The European Union called on the Russian Federation to take into account the concerns about freedom of movement, including those which refer to the restrictions on Ukrainian citizens crossing from Ukraine mainland to Crimea and vice versa. The full text of the EU statement could be found here.
