Kiev Lodges Note of Protest to Moscow Over Matvienko’s Visit to Crimea

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry lodges on Tuesday a note of protest to Russia over the recent visit of Russian parliament's upper house speaker Valentina Matvienko to Crimea, the ministry’s press service said in a statement.

KIEV (Sputnik) – Matvienko arrived in Crimea on Sunday to take part in the Great Russian Word festival and visit the international children center Artek.

"The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry expresses a decisive protest over one more illegal visit to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea … made by high-ranking officials of the occupier state headed by Chairwoman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko, which was a major violation of the Ukrainian and international law … In this regard, the Russian Foreign Ministry was handed over a corresponding note of protest," the statement said.

Crimea seceded from Ukraine and reunified with Russia in March 2014, when more than 96 percent of local voters supported the move in a referendum. Kiev, as well as the European Union, the United States and their allies, did not recognize the move and consider the peninsula to be an occupied territory.