Interior Ministry of Ukraine to create a patrol police force for Crimea and Sevastopol
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine intends to form a patrol police force in the Crimea and Sevastopol that will work “in other areas” until the peninsula is freed from "Russian occupation", stated the Minister of Interior, Arsen Avakov, at the annual college meeting of the Interior Ministry in Kyiv, the UNN news reports.
After the de-occupation of the Crimea, “the police divisions that will have been formed will be transferred to the Crimea,” the Minister explained.
At the same time, the Chairperson of the Ukrainian National Police, Serhiy Knyazev, said at the annual college meeting that in 2018 the police plan to form and launch patrol police subdivisions in the cities of Kovel and Bila Tserkva, as well as special police forces in the Crimea and Sevastopol.
In late November 2017, at the VIII National Expert Forum “Ukraine: Seeking Balance” Arsen Avakov said that the Minsk Agreements were unable to provide an efficient mechanism for reestablishing peace. He called for new agreements that would mandate the full withdrawal of Russian troops from the Ukraine and the return of the Donbas and Crimea under the control of Kyiv.
The Crimea peninsula was annexed by the Russian Federation in March 2014 by the deployment of camouflage-clad “green men” who did not wear any insignia or other marks on their uniforms but later were recognized as Russian troops. In the same month, there was a ‘referendum’ held in the peninsula, the results of which lead to the annexion of the Crimea by Russia. Ukraine does not recognize the results of the referendum and considers the peninsula "a temporarily occupied territory".
The Kremlin has faced international condemnation for its annexation of the Peninsula, leading many western countries to impose economic sanctions against Russia. In the United Nations, only Afghanistan, North Korea, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Syria recognize Crimea as a legitimate federal subject of Russia.