The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (MFA) Oleh Nikolenko responded to the statements of the mayor of the Latvian city of Daugavpils Andrejs Elksnins about the "Russian" Crimea and Ukraineʼs responsibility for the tragedy in Bucha.
In an interview with Delfi on November 6, Elksninsh said: "Crimea is part of the Russian Federation."
To the question of whether the peninsula was legally included in the Russian Federation, he answered: "I think that this can be discussed after a deeper analysis. Of course, thereʼs a lot of debate about that."
The journalist denied this statement and noted that the analysis has already taken place — the countries do not recognize the occupation of Crimea by Russia.
"It is right. But you cannot separate the fact that it was included in the Russian Federation — this is one thing, and another — the whole of Europe and the whole world continued to cooperate with Russia after that," Elksninsh noted.
Speaking about Russiaʼs responsibility for the tragedy in Bucha, the mayor of Daugavpils said: "Russia, Ukraine, and the United States are unequivocally responsible for everything that happened."
"Everyone is responsible for the events and the situation, and first of all diplomats, because when diplomats lose in diplomacy, the army acts. It was always like that. And in this situation, it is a loss of diplomacy," Elksninsh said in response to the question why he considers Ukraine responsible.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko emphasized that the mayorʼs words do not reflect either the official position of Latvia or the views of the absolute majority of Latvians.
"It is not surprising that his [Andreis Elksnins] political power ended up on the sidelines of politics following the results of the last elections to the Latvian Sejm. Fortunately, the statements of this marginal figure do not reflect either the official position of Latvia, which is friendly to us, or the views of the absolute majority of Latvians, who not only sincerely sympathize, but also actively help Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression," he wrote on Facebook.
- In early October, the "New Unity" party won the parliamentary elections in Latvia. The largest pro-Russian party "Zgoda" fell just short of 5% — 4.81% of voters voted for it. Before that, she won three consecutive parliamentary elections, but was always in the opposition.