Crimean Official Calls on UN, OSCE to Expel Ukraine Following Foiled Attacks

Crimea's deputy prime minister called on the UN and the OSCE to expel Ukraine, after the Russian authorities foiled a Kiev plot to conduct a series of attacks on the peninsula.

SIMFEROPOL (Sputnik) — The United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) should promptly expel Ukraine, after the Russian authorities foiled a Kiev plot to conduct a series of attacks in Crimea, the deputy prime minister of Crimea said Thursday.

"We call on all civilized nations to stand united and not only condemn the Ukrainian authorities, but immediately expel Ukraine from the United Nations and the OSCE, as these organizations are supposed to maintain security in the world, and not to unleash aggression against the civilian population, which is exactly what the Kiev authorities are doing," Ruslan Balbek told RIA Novosti.

On Wednesday, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that it had dismantled a spy ring organized by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry in Crimea, which was preparing acts of sabotage on "critical and life-supporting elements of the peninsula's infrastructure."

Crimea became part of Russia after almost 97 percent of those who voted in a local referendum on the issue in 2014 supported the move.