Ukraine promises to ‘never supply’ water to Crimea
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said that Kyiv will never deliver water to the territory of Crimea, despite the air pollution situation in the north of the peninsula, reports UNIAN.
In his opinion, Russia is trying to use the harmful substances release situation at the Crimean Titan plant in order to "promote" the issue of water supply to the region. "However, we must avoid looking into this issue presented in such a humanitarian wrapper rather than from the point of view of international law,” said the minister.
As noted by Klimkin, Ukraine intends to gather the necessary evidence and present it to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). There, it plans to accuse Russia of the targeted emission of toxic substances into the atmosphere in the north of the Crimea based on the documented evidence. "Now we established a preliminary contact, but we will not do anything that will give Russia its trump card in order to use this issue in the context of water manipulation," he added.
The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that Kyiv is aware of all the Russia’s "fake plans" to arrange water supplies to the Crimea. "We will never allow this. The water under the contract, where it is written "Crimea, Russia", will never be supplied to the occupied territory, "he concluded.
The release of an unknown substance in the north of Crimea occurred on the night of August 24. After that, an oily plaque appeared on the roofs of houses, metal objects and tree leaves. The Crimean authorities said that the reason for the contamination was evaporation of the acid storage contents at the Crimean Titan plant in Armyansk. Based on this incident, the Russian Investigative Committee instituted criminal proceedings under Part 1 of Article 247 of the Criminal Code of Russia (violation of the rules for the treatment of environmentally hazardous substances and waste).
Later, Crimean leader Sergey Aksyonov warned about the possibility of a new chemical release in Armyansk. He explained that this could happen if the region once again experienced hot weather.
In turn, Kyiv accused Russia of deliberate release of harmful substances, while the representative of the Ukrainian president for the Crimea, Boris Babin, said that Ukraine is not going to resume the supply of water to the Crimean peninsula, as the population does not need it. "Today, the Crimea needs Dnipro water, their economy is stopping, and they have empty reservoirs. This does not pose a threat to the population. There is enough drinking water for the population. This presents problems for enterprises, "he explained.