Russia wants to abolish border zones on the border with occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Ukraine responded

Russia wants to abolish border zones in certain areas of the Rostov and Voronezh regions, which border the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Russian media wrote about this.

FSB prepared the corresponding draft. The documents explain this by allegedly "incorporating" the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine into the Russian Federation.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry responded that Moscow is "once again trying to pass off wishful thinking as reality and replace the internationally recognized legal status with its own unsound administrative decisions".

The department emphasized: a decree or departmental order of the Russian Federation cannot change the legal status of Ukrainian territories. Occupation does not create sovereignty, and an attempt at annexation does not generate territorial rights.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs notes that the FSB decision should be considered as another element of a consistent policy of administrative appropriation of the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine and creating the appearance of its "final integration" into Russia.

"It is indicative that Moscow continues to change the wording in its own orders and draw new lines on maps, apparently counting on the fact that such steps are capable of changing the legal status of the territory of Ukraine. We confidently inform you that they are not capable of doing so," the department concluded.

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