The Crimean peninsula can never be returned to Ukraine, notwithstanding the fact that it was “annexed,” Czech President Milos Zeman said in answering a reader’s question in the Czech newspaper Parlamentni Listy.

“[Nikita] Khrushchev committed an unforgivable stupidity and the world’s politicians acknowledge today that Crimea cannot be given back to Ukraine,” Zeman said, referring to the Soviet leader who in 1954 made Crimea part of Ukraine, which was then a part of the Soviet Union.

Read more

At the same time, the Czech president stressed that he believed Crimea was, indeed, “annexed” by Russia in 2014.

“It is doubtless that agreements guaranteeing Ukraine’s territorial integrity were breached,” he said, responding to a question from a reader who argued that Crimea had historically been a part of Russia and was thus just “returned,” and not “annexed.”

Zeman had urged the EU to accept the Crimean Republic’s accession into the Russian Federation immediately after it took place in 2014, saying that no one should expect the region’s return to Ukraine in the foreseeable future.

He has also repeatedly spoken out against the anti-Russian sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU and US over Crimea and the Ukrainian crisis.

Most recently, at the opening ceremony of an annual agricultural fair in Ceske Budejovice in late August, he urged the Czech government to seek ways to lift anti-Russian sanctions, stressing that the US embargo on Cuba had demonstrated that these kinds of measures were ineffective.

Zeman was also the only Western leader who came to Russia to attend the 2015 celebrations marking the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.</s>Crimea cannot be returned to Ukraine, Czech president says

PRAGUE, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Ukraine cannot get back the Crimea peninsula, although Russia took it by annexation, Czech President Milos Zeman was quoted as saying.

Russia annexed Crimea, which includes the strategic port of Sevastopol where its Black Sea Fleet has been based, in 2014, prompting the European Union and United States to impose economic and political sanctions on various Russian companies and officials.

Zeman has spoken out against the EU sanctions and has regularly expressed pro-Russian views. He was the only Western leader to attend the May 2015 celebrations in Moscow to mark the end of World War Two.

"An annexation means breaching international agreements and it is doubtless that agreements guaranteeing Ukraine's territorial integrity were breached," Zeman said in a response to a reader's question published by www.parlamentnilisty.cz.

"On the other hand, I agree with you that (Soviet leader Nikita) Khrushchev made an unforgivable silly thing and world's politicians acknowledge today that Crimea cannot be given back to Ukraine," Zeman said. He did not specify who those politicians were.

Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, in 1954.

The Czech government, which has the main say in the foreign policy of the EU country, has followed the common stance of the bloc regarding the sanctions on Russia.

The United States expanded its sanctions over the Crimea annexation on September 1, adding dozens of people and companies, some of them involved in building a multi-billion dollar bridge to link the Russian mainland with the peninsula.

This week, Russia has started major military exercise involving the Black Sea and Caspian fleets with 12,500 troops taking part. (Reporting by Robert Muller)</s>MARINKA, Ukraine — The gray-bearded officer’s summary of the war in eastern Ukraine is terse with weariness.

“We stand in place. We shoot over there, they shoot back from over there,” Mykhailo Gaiduk said. “It’s just burning up time.”

The area that Gaiduk calls “over there” is territory controlled by Russia-backed separatists, where a rebel using the nom de guerre of Chester agrees: “Everybody is tired of this pointless war.”

A cease-fire signed two years ago was supposed to have ended the fighting. So was a cease-fire last year.

A temporary truce called for the beginning of the new school year on Sept. 1 briefly tamped down the fighting — the Ukrainian side reported only one soldier and one rebel were killed Tuesday. But that relative calm is clearly fragile; Ukraine also claimed rebels fired some 90 mortar rounds at troops outside the city of Mariupol, one of the war’s tensest areas.

According to United Nations figures, more than 9,500 people have been killed in the fighting in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that began in April 2014, after Ukraine’s Russia-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted by street protests and Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula.

The region, which is also known as Donbass, forms Ukraine’s Russian-speaking industrial heartland and many local residents on both sides of the front line are deeply distrustful of the new Ukrainian government’s Western-leaning policies. However, an all-out war didn’t break out there until after the arrival of a large number of troops and heavy weaponry, chiefly believed to be Russian supplies.

Despite the carnage and the weariness of those inflicting it, there’s little expectation it will actually stop anytime soon. Ukraine says it will propose making the start-of-school cease-fire permanent at a meeting of conflict negotiators on Wednesday in Minsk, Belarus. But the word “Minsk” has become nearly synonymous with broken promises and dashed hopes.

The Minsk Protocol of September 2014, signed by Ukraine, Russia and rebel representatives, called for an end to the fighting. That agreement frayed so fast that five months later a new round of negotiations — this time including France and Germany — were held in Minsk.

Although the agreement coming from that meeting had a firmer grip and saw both sides pull back heavy weaponry from the front lines for a time, other provisions weren’t met; attacks resumed and escalated.

Under the Minsk agreements, the two rebel-controlled regions — which call themselves the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics — are to remain part of Ukraine, which disappointed many who sought absorption into Russia or outright independence. But although remaining part of Ukraine, they are to have some powers devolved to them and Ukraine is to conduct regional elections.

However, Ukraine says it will not call elections there until it is allowed full return of control of the Ukraine-Russia border, a concession the rebels are unwilling to give.

The leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic, which relies heavily on support from Russia, says straight out that the stalemate is in his interest.

“Time works for us. The Minsk agreement is our great diplomatic victory, the guarantee of our independent status … The Minsk agreement tied Kiev’s hands, and we were given the opportunity to become stronger,” Alexander Zakharchenko recently told journalists.

And in a way it may work in Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s interest too, says analyst Vadim Karasyov.

“War is profitable for both sides. The separatists make money. And Poroshenko can attribute all the problems of (Ukraine’s) economy to the war,” he said.

As awful as the full-scale war was, some on Ukraine’s front lines found it preferable to the seemingly endless grind of today’s smaller clashes.

“In 2014, we suffered losses, but we won, we went ahead. We squeezed them, we beat them, they were afraid of us,” said a Ukrainian sniper who gave his name only as Corporal. “Now we’re bearing the same losses, but standing still.”</s>Russia has formed a "self-sufficient military group" in Crimea capable of repelling attempts to seize the peninsula, Interfax news agency quoted the Defence Ministry as saying on Friday.

The statement was made during the final stage of the Caucasus-2016 large-scale military drills held in Crimea.

Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 after months of protests in Kiev ousted pro-Moscow Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.</s>MOSCOW, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Russia has formed a "self-sufficient military group" in Crimea capable of repelling attempts to seize the peninsula, Interfax news agency quoted the Defence Ministry as saying on Friday.

The statement was made during the final stage of the Caucasus-2016 large-scale military drills held in Crimea.

Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 after months of protests in Kiev ousted pro-Moscow Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. (Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Christian Lowe)
Czech President Milos Zeman says in an interview that the Crimean peninsula can never be returned to Ukraine, notwithstanding the fact that it was de facto annexed by Russia.