UN position on Crimea determined by General Assembly resolutions - TASS

The United Nations defines its approaches to Crimea based on countries' votes on the relevant resolutions in the UN General Assembly, Deputy Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Farhan Haq told TASS commenting on the words of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko that after the referendum in 2014 Crimea de jure became Russian.

"The UN position on Crimea is defined by the relevant resolutions of the UN General Assembly. It would be up to the Member States of the General Assembly to determine if they wanted to change their position in subsequent resolutions," he said, answering a question about whether Belarus should notify the organization about its position on Crimea declared by Lukashenko.

Haq did not answer the clarifying question about whether the UN has a procedure for recognizing a change in the ownership of a particular territory.