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Ukraine’s Rada passes bill declaring Crimea ‘temporarily occupied territory’

The bill also bans any economic operations on the ‘temporarily occupied territory’ if they imply activity subjected to regulation by the state

KIEV, March 20. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has passed a bill declaring the Crimean Peninsula ‘temporarily occupied territory’.

The document that was initiated by Serhiy Sobolev, the head of Batkivhshchyna (Homeland) party’s parliamentary faction. He said the notion of the ‘temporarily occupied territory’ embraces “the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol, internal waters and Ukraine’s territorial sea, the seafloor and the mineral resources found therein, the continental shelf, and the exclusive economic zone.”

In addition, the notion covers "the submerged space within the limits of the territorial sea and the airspace above that area."

“For Ukrainian citizens, foreigners and stateless persons, entering the temporarily occupied territory or leaving it is possible only upon special permits and through the authorized points of exit/entry along the procedures established by the cabinet of ministers,” the bill says.

In addition, it bans any economic operations on the ‘temporarily occupied territory’ if they imply activity subjected to regulation by the state, as well as exports/imports of dual technologies, setting up of any transport communications, utilization of natural, financial, and lending resources, and money remittances.

The Vekhovna Rada is due to consider the bill in the second reading on March 25, Ukraine’s appointed Interim President Oleksadnr Turchynov said.