He said this in an interview with "Rubric".

The Ukrainian initiative "Crimean Platform" was strongly noted (in the EU - ed.), Which is very important. Again, after spending the first 25 years of my life in occupied Estonia, I remember very well that most Western countries did not recognize "I remember what that meant. Diplomats of these countries could not officially visit the Soviet republics in the Baltics, there were visits of heads of state", - Maasikas said.

Read also: EU Foreign Minister to pay working visit to Ukraine

He noted that "there is currently a strong sanctions regime in Crimea".

"I believe that the Ukrainian leadership has rightly decided to raise diplomatic and political stakes in order to draw more political attention to the issue of illegal annexation of Crimea", - Maasikas added.

What is known

• Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto has threatened the Kremlin with strong economic sanctions. This will happen if Russia invades Ukraine or launches an active hybrid operation.
• On the evening of January 2, US President Joseph Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi had a telephone conversation. In particular, they discussed issues of preventing further escalation of the situation on the Ukrainian-Russian border, joint actions to preserve peace in Europe and reforms in Ukraine.
• The United States is pushing the European Union to agree on a new package of sanctions against Russia as soon as possible in the event of a large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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