Rada's foreign affairs committee urges EU lawmakers not to visit Crimea

"We express emphatic protest at the intentions of some members of national parliaments of EU states and lawmakers of the European Parliament to visit the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea temporarily occupied and annexed by the Russian Federation," the Ukrainian parliament said in a statement posted on its website. Ukrainian deputies said that such actions taken by some representatives of European parliamentarians undermine a common and principled stance of the European Union, the global community which condemned Russia's violation of fundamental principles of international law and bilateral relations. In addition, members of the Verkhovna Rada committee urged the European Parliament foreign affairs committee and its chairman Elmar Brok personally to take every effort to talk European lawmakers into the need to retain a clear-cut and principled position on the issues of Crimea.