SIMFEROPOL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2019) A visit of a UN mission to Crimea would allow to prevent the further spread of misinformation at the international level and recover the undermined authority of this organization, Yury Gempel, the head of the Crimean parliament's committee on inter-ethnic relations and public diplomacy, told Sputnik.
The UN General Assembly adopted on Monday a draft resolution sponsored by Ukraine on the issue of militarization of Crimean peninsula as 63 member states voted in favor of the resolution, 19 member states voted against and 66 abstained.
The draft resolution � dubbed "Problem of the Militarization of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol, Ukraine, as well as Parts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov" � urges Russia to end immediately what it calls is a "temporary occupation" of the Crimean Peninsula and withdraw its military forces.
"The United Nations has been adopting various provocative resolutions on Crimea over the past five years, which are full of misinformation. The time has come to put an end to all this. The United Nations should remember the principles on which this organization was created and send a mission to Crimea. This will allow not only to verify the legality of the reunification of Crimea with Russia, but also to recover the undermined authority of the organization," Gempel said.
According to him, Crimeans are ready to provide a hospitable high level reception to the UN mission if such a visit is coordinated by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Crimea rejoined Russia after nearly 97 percent of voters supported the move in a referendum held in March of 2014. The majority of Western countries, as well as Ukraine, have not recognized the referendum results and imposed sanctions on Russia. Moscow has repeatedly stated that Crimea's residents decided to rejoin Russia through a democratic procedure, as the referendum was conducted in compliance with international law. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the issue of the peninsula's territorial belonging is "historically closed."
