Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry  has a swift response to population census, held by Russia is occupied Crimea, comdemning the  attempts aiming  to ‘legitimize the annexation’.

‘Such actions of the Russian Federation are directed against the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and are continuation of attempts to legitimize annexation of the temporarily occupied Crimea and to extend on its territory the Russian legislation’, said the ministry in a  statement Friday.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry reminded that with 2014 Crimean referendum’  having no legal force, it cannot serve as a basis for the census on the occupied peninsula as part of the all-Russian census.

Ukraine has urged  the international community to condemn Russia’s census in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine and not to recognize its results.

‘Conducting a census in the temporarily occupied territory is a hostile act against our state, and we reserve the right for retaliatory action’, the statement stressed.