The issue of the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and the return of Crimea is the responsibility of the whole world, said the Presidential Envoy for the Peace Plan for Eastern Ukraine and ‘Poroshenko Bloc’ MP, Irina Herashchenko.

"Ukraine is ready to actively use all international platforms to solve the issue of Crimea. It is the duty of the whole world to look for an answer to the restoration of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and the transfer of Crimea to Ukrainian sovereignty," she wrote on Facebook Tuesday night.

She said that she asked the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, about the role of the Council of Europe and the PACE in the return of Crimea, the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine and the protection of human rights. "Jagland's answer was diplomatically ambiguous; he stated that the mission is working and its findings will become the basis for establishing further action. He stressed that the position of the Council of Europe and the PACE regarding the Crimea remains unchanged as it was declared in previous resolutions on the illegal annexation," Heraschenko wrote.

According to her, Jagland in his speech to the PACE said that the Special Mission of the Council of Europe for monitoring human rights violations in Crimea have been working in the annexed peninsula for the last two days.

On January 25th it was reported on the Council of Europe’s website that the human rights mission has begun its work in Crimea. Secretary General Jagland sent the Swiss diplomat Gerard Stoudmann to Crimea to lead the mission; he is accompanied by three representatives of the Secretariat of the Council of Europe.

Jagland explained his decision to send the mission to Crimea, saying that the human rights situation on the occupied peninsula needs to be assessed. "For more than a year no international delegations have been able to get there," the Secretary General of the Council of Europe said.

According to him, the mission will be carried out "completely independently" and won't concern the "territorial status of the Crimea."

According to the website, the CE mission, whose work began in Crimea on Monday, will be presenting a report of their findings to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in late February or March.

  Ukraine, Crimea, PACE

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