'Sea of Azov is forever lost to Ukraine' – Crimean official

'Sea of Azov is forever lost to Ukraine' – Crimean official

The deputy prime minister of the Crimean government, Georgy Muradov, has said “The Sea of Azov is forever lost to Ukraine” according to reports from Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency, Qazet.az reports.

The Sea of Azov is forever lost to Ukraine. Ports in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions will never again be Ukrainian. I am sure that after the reunification of our regions with Russia, the Sea of Azov will again, as it was before, become exclusively an inland sea of the Russian Federation

The agency also quotes Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region as saying the same that Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions will never be returned to the control of the Kyiv.

Russia annexed Crimea after invading in 2014. Ukraine has repeatedly said that it will not enter any peace deal that does not restore its borders. Vladimir Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev has said that Russia will not accept any settlement that does not recognise Crimea as Russian territory.