Crimea Gov't Skeptical of Ukraine’s Plan to Send Patrol Police to Peninsula

Crimea officials called the proposal by Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov to send patrol police to the peninsula "yet another number in a circus program," RIA Novosti reported.

SIMFEROPOL (Sputnik) – Crimea authorities are skeptical of Avakov’s plan to have Ukrainian patrol police work in the Russian republic.

"Minister Avakov’s new idea reminds of yet another number in a circus program," deputy head of Crimea’s government Ruslan Balbek told RIA Novosti.

According to Avakov, there are plans of having Ukrainian patrol police work in the southeastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as in Crimea, but specific launch dates for the program have not been determined yet.

Crimea, which has a predominately ethnically-Russian population, seceded from Ukraine to rejoin Russia in March 2014, following a referendum in which over 96 percent of voters supported the move. The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics (DPR and LPR) were established in Ukraine’s southeast after independence referendums held in May 2014.

The Ukrainian government and many Western nations refused to recognize the legality of the Crimea referendum and have introduced sanctions against the region and Russia.