MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's remarks that the right of peoples to self-determination does not apply to Crimea, Donbass, and Novorossiya are inappropriate, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev and Viktor Medvedchuk, former leader of Ukraine’s banned Opposition Platform - For Life party, said in a joint article, published in International Affairs Journal.
"The above demonstrates the inadequacy and political bias of the current UN Secretary-General's legal positions on the issue of self-determination of Russia's so-called new territories. All of Guterres's statements on this topic are politically motivated, false, and legally untenable," Medvedev and Medvedchuk wrote in an article entitled Once Again on the Right of Crimea, the Donetsk People's Republic, the Lugansk People's Republic, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions to Self-Determination.
"His words were dictated by a cowardly desire to side with the collective West, and primarily with the countries of the European Union, in the conflict with Russia," the authors emphasized. "The international legal principle of equal rights and self-determination can and should be applied to Crimea, Donbass, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions."
As Guterres previously stated in response to a TASS question, the UN Secretariat has concluded that the right of peoples to self-determination is inapplicable in the situation of Crimea and Donbass. According to him, in the cases mentioned, the principle of territorial integrity prevails over the right of self-determination of peoples. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Guterres's words the ultimate disgrace for the UN.