MOSCOW, March 20. /ITAR-TASS/. Associated Press agency (AP) has stopped marking news from Crimea as Ukrainian  since “Ukraine no longer controls Crimea, and AP datelines should reflect the facts on the ground”, says the AP blog.

In particular, AP reports from Sevastopol will now be marked “SEVASTOPOL, Crimea” against the previous “SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine”. According to AP, it does not use the “Russia” marker because of the rules applied in the agency to the regions that have no land borders with the country’s mainland. For instance, datelines from Sicily and Sardinia are marked with the islands’ names, not “Italy”.

Bloomberg earlier reported the US National Geographic Society had revised its attitude to Crimea and was planning to designate Crimea on maps as part of Russia.