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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
UNIAN, photo UNIAN, Yevhen Kravs and Maksym Polishchuk Russia intends to abolish border zones in certain sections of the Rostov and Voronezh regions that border the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. The same changes will be introduced between the occupied Crimea and the seized part of Kherson region.
This was reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. The agency noted that the corresponding changes are contained in Russian departmental project orders. In Moscow they supposedly explain it by "including" the occupied Ukrainian territories into the composition of Russia.
The Foreign Ministry explained why the Russian Federation is changing the border regime. In particular, the Ukrainian foreign policy agency emphasized that this is not just about the abolition of border control. According to the MFA, Russia is trying to create the appearance that the occupied territories of Ukraine have apparently become part of the Russian Federation.
"Moscow is trying to present the desirable as the real and to substitute the internationally recognized legal status with its own bungled administrative decisions, obviously believing that issuing the respective unlawful order is enough to appropriate the territories of a sovereign state," the MFA statement said.
The agency added that no Russian laws, decrees, or orders can change the internationally recognized status of Ukrainian territories.
"In fact, this is not about ending border control, but about another attempt to erase the border between the territory of the aggressor state and the territory of Ukraine it occupies," the Foreign Ministry emphasized.
According to the Kremlin's plan, moving border control to the external borders of the occupied territories is meant to show their supposed "final integration" into Russia's administrative system.
The MFA stressed that occupation does not create sovereignty, and an attempt at annexation does not generate territorial rights.
"The Russian Federation remains an occupying power and an aggressor state regardless of how it defines the status of the occupied territories in its own legislation," the Ukrainian agency noted.
They added that moving checkpoint points, changing Russian documents, or redrawing maps do not change the status of Ukrainian lands.
In Ukraine, it was stressed that Crimea, Sevastopol, and the occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions remain integral parts of Ukraine.
The MFA described the FSB decision as another element of the policy of administrative appropriation of temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories and an attempt to create the appearance of their "final integration" into Russia.
"It is telling that Moscow continues to change formulations in its own orders and to draw new lines on maps, clearly counting on such steps to change the legal status of Ukrainian territory. We confidently inform you that they are not capable of doing so," the MFA summed up.
Other news about the occupied lands
As UNIAN wrote, the European Union first extended the sanctions it imposed against the Russian Federation for the occupation of Ukrainian lands, not for 6 months. It was noted that for more than 10 years EU leaders regularly extended anti-Russian sanctions every six months.
And in July, The Guardian wrote that Ukraine's strikes on Crimea return the peninsula to the "Stone Age." Residents of Crimea told reporters that they are disappointed both with the authorities installed by Russia and with the Kremlin.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Росія хоче "стерти" кордон з окупованими територіями України: у МЗС розкрили задум Кремля". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: UNIAN.
