Ukraine: clear breaches of international law in Crimea

The referendum held by the people of Crimea on March 16 may have seen the local population vote to join Russia, but it provides no justification for the annexation of the province under international law, according to leading experts.

‘Under Article 2 of the UN Charter the forceful acquisition of territory is illegal. This is clearly what happened in relation to Crimea. It doesn’t matter what the result of the so-called referendum was, or what the will of the Crimean people may have been. Russia used force against the territorial integrity of Ukraine. That cannot be retrospectively legitimised,’ says Robert Volterra, an expert in public international law at London-based Volterra Fietta. Read more

Pro-Russian protests in Donetsk © Stringer/Reuters