Moscow-January 12, 2023

At a press conference in the capital Moscow, the spokeswoman said

On behalf of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova: "Kiev is promoting delusional ideas about its intention to restore Crimea".

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, repeated Ukrainian statements on the restoration of control over the Crimea peninsula, which Moscow annexed to its territory in 2014, are "propaganda of illusion".

Following the crisis in Ukraine in 2014, following the protests that overthrew the then pro-Moscow Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a referendum was subsequently held among the residents of Crimea on joining Russia, but Kiev and its Western backers refused to recognize the results of this appeal.

With the outbreak of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, there was again talk about the peninsula bordering the Black Sea and the Azov Sea branching from it.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly said that the war began with Crimea and will end there, vowing to restore it.

In connection with the Ukrainian crisis, Zakharova said:

Western weapons that are sent to Ukraine, some of them reach the black markets.

Western countries use Ukraine as a human shield and do not want a truce.

The lack of recognition of the new realities in Ukraine prolongs the crisis," he said, referring to Russia's annexation of 4 Ukrainian regions in September of 2022.

"The goals of the special military operation in Ukraine will be achieved,"she stressed.