On Thursday, October 29, US Permanent Representative to the OSCE James Gilmore at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna called on the Russian Federation to withdraw from the east of Ukraine and Crimea, as well as to end its long-term campaign of repression on the peninsula.
“Ukraine continues its chosen path as a free, democratic and multifaceted country – and it will always remain one of Russia's neighbors. There is no benefit to the Russian people from the Kremlin’s costly policy of irreconcilable hostility towards Ukraine, to its own citizens, and to the Ukrainians, Moscow must leave the east of Ukraine and Crimea and begin the process of establishing friendly relations between the two countries based on mutual respect”,- he said.
Gilmore stressed that Russia must end its long campaign of repression in Crimea, end the violent draft of young Crimeans, free all Ukrainian political prisoners, and return control of the peninsula to Ukraine.