On March 6, 2014 the Parliament of the Crimea Autonomous Republic (ARC) adopted the decision “Conducting the all-Crimea referendum”, which is scheduled on March 16, 2014, that envisages the annexation of the Crimea to the Russian Federation. In this connection the Embassy attracts the attention to the following:

• Ukraine is the sovereign and the independent state, with integral and inviolable territory and any interference in the internal affairs of the state is unacceptable;
• The ARC is an integral part of Ukraine, which territory is covered by the Constitution of Ukraine and the laws of Ukraine ;
• The decision of the ARC Parliament to conduct all-Crimea referendum regarding the state appurtenance of the Crimea  directly contradicts Article 73 of the Constitution of Ukraine and Articles 18 and 26 of the Constitution of the ARC;
• In accordance with the provisions of the paragraph 2 of Article 85 of the Constitution of Ukraine the authority to call a referendum on the territorial changes is the sole right of the Parliament of Ukraine;
• The inclusion in so-called referendum the above mentioned issues is a flagrant violation of the current legislation of Ukraine, in particular, the Article 73 of the Constitution of Ukraine and the Paragraph 2, Part 3, Article 3 of the Law of Ukraine "On National Referendum", which determine that the issue of territorial changes has to be solved only by national referendum;
• Conducting such referendum in violation of the Constitution of Ukraine and current laws of Ukraine, as well as any results of such referendum and any decisions made further on its basis are illegal.