Russian officials rebuffed the Trump administration after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula while testifying Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
“We know the worth of these ’fateful declarations’,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reacted sarcastically through her official Facebook account Wednesday.
“[T]he Iranian nuclear program and the Paris climate agreement have also recently been the official policy of the United States. Obama made the decision personally. And then Trump decided to change it,” Ms. Zakharova wrote in a social media post, as translated by Russian state media.
The Russian Embassy in D.C. called Mr. Pompeo’s comments “proof that our partners live in a different dimension,” and pointed to the widely contested voter referendum that resulted in Russia seizing the former Soviet Union state.
Mr. Pompeo condemned the annexation and ongoing occupation of Crimea during a hearing held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, drawing swift reactions from Russian leaders.
Konstantin Kosachev, a Russian politician who serves as chairman of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs Committee, argued that the Trump administration’s stance “opposes the people’s will.”
“That’s doomed to failure, historically and politically,” Mr. Kosachev wrote in a Facebook post, Russian state media reported.
Russia annexed Crimea soon after Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly former president, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted from office in early 2014. Russia began conducting military activity in eastern and southern Ukraine following Mr. Yanukovych’s ouster, and within weeks organized a voter referendum that resulted in cementing its control, spawning sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies.
The U.S. “does not and will not recognize the Kremlin’s purported annexation of Crimea,” Mr. Pompeo said Wednesday. “There will be no relief of Crimea-related sanctions until Russia returns control of the Crimean Peninsula to Ukraine. This Crimea Declaration formalizes United States policy of nonrecognition.”
Petro Poroshenko, Mr. Yanukovych’s successor, said he was “sincerely grateful” for the Trump’s administration’s stance and that he hoped it will finally deprive Kremlin of its imperial illusions.”
“Crimea belongs to Ukraine and it is not negotiable - it wasn’t, isn’t and can’t be compromised,” he said Thursday.
President Trump claimed earlier this month that Russian President Vladimir Putin “would not have taken over Crimea” if he was in office at the time.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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