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Lavrov draws CE Secretary-General’s attention to Crimea’s water blockade

The problem of water supply and irrigation in Crimea emerged in 2014, when Ukraine unilaterally blocked the North Crimean canal, which brought water to the peninsula from the Kherson Region

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that at negotiations with the Council of Europe’s Secretary-General Marija Pejcinovic-Buric he stressed the impermissibility of Crimea’s water blockade.

"We stressed the impermissibility of a situation with Crimea’s water blockade in violation of all conceivable conventions - European and universal - and in violation of the recommendation made back in 2016 by the Council of Europe’s special envoy Gerard Studman, who visited Crimea and made a report on the situation there. One of his recommendations was prompt response to the problem of Crimea’s water supply," Lavrov told a news conference following talks with Pejcinovic-Buric on Monday.

He said the two sides also discussed further outspoken discrimination against the Russian language and Russian-speaking population in Ukraine and the Baltic countries and the impermissibility of heroization of Nazi criminals and their henchmen and destruction of monuments to the soldiers who liberated Europe.

"We are certain that the Council of Europe, which positions itself as the leading human rights organization in Europe, must not turn a blind eye on these disgraceful phenomena, to say the least," Lavrov said.

The problem of water supply and irrigation in Crimea emerged in 2014, when Ukraine unilaterally blocked the North Crimean canal, which brought water to the peninsula from the Kherson Region. All of Crimea’s households and businesses have to use water from local sources. This year’s droughty weather resulted in water shortages.

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