Ukraine did not ban Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib from entering its territory. Ukraine however, expects an official apology from Lahbib since a year ago she violated Ukrainian legislation by visiting the occupied Crimea and entering the peninsula via Russia. To make her diplomatic visit to Kyiv possible, the Belgian Foreign Ministry should express a clear position regarding Hadja Lahbib’s trip to Crimea, as well as recognize the peninsula as part of Ukraine.
Social media and Russian websites are spreading manipulative messages about the new Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister Hadja Lahbib being banned from entering Ukraine because of her trip to Crimea. Russian sources claim that this was allegedly reported by the Ukrainian online newspaper Evropeiska Pravda (European Truth). Hadja Lahbib visited Crimea in 2021, when she was ‘still a journalist,’ RIA Novosti writes. She went to the Global Values festival, which was held in Sevastopol.
In reality, the European Pravda article entitled Crimean Plume. Ukraine Clashes with the Belgian Foreign Minister over a Visit to the Occupied Peninsula does not claim that Ukraine forbade Foreign Minister Lahbib from entering its territory. However, Ukraine expects an apology from Lahbib for her illegal visit to the occupied peninsula at the end of July 2021.
Serhiy Sydorenko, the author of the article, notes that Lahbib, a TV journalist at the time, flew to Crimea via the Russian Federation, thus violating Ukrainian legislation. Lahbib visited the cultural festival Global Values, which was personally curated by Putin’s daughter Ekaterina Tikhonova. This visit was financed by the host country — Russia. Returning to Belgium, Hadja Lahbib made statements doubting Crimea’s belonging to Ukraine. At that time, not much attention was paid to this visit. However, after the former TV journalist became the new head of the Belgian Foreign Ministry, the fact of this illegal visit to Crimea can no longer remain unnoticed.
‘No one wants to destroy relations with Belgium, an EU and NATO Member state. However, it is impossible to tolerate such actions because it would set a dangerous precedent. The ball is now in Belgium’s court. However, Lahbib herself does not understand this and her team has even expressed a lack of understanding of what was wrong with her expressing doubts about Crimea belonging to Ukraine at that time,’ the Evropeiska Pravda writes. According to the publication, if the Belgian Foreign Minister’s position does not change as soon as possible, then Hadja Lahbib may repeat the fate of the Moldovan President Ihor Dodon. Until the end of his presidency, he unsuccessfully looked for opportunities to meet with Ukrainian officials, but remained undesirable as a visitor and partner because he did not support the territorial integrity of Ukraine and lacked the courage to apologize for refusing to say Crimea is Ukraine.
Despite misunderstanding the importance of the Crimean issue for Ukraine, Hadja Lahbib cannot be called a pro-Russian politician. On the contrary, the party she represents is pro-Ukrainian, and the Minister herself appealed to Ukraine for a diplomatic visit to Kyiv. But the Ukrainian side is not ready to accept Lahbib’s request yet. They are still waiting for her to announce a clear position on the Crimean peninsula and an apology for violating Ukrainian legislation regarding the occupied territories. At the same time, the spokesperson of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Oleh Nikolenko stated that the Ministry is ‘establishing through diplomatic channels all the circumstances of the trip to make decisions regarding further bilateral contacts’, Evropeiska Pravda reports.
‘EuroPravda’s sources confirm that Ukraine is now in touch with Belgium, explaining they should find a solution. So far, no success’, the Ukrainian source writes. However, Kyiv has no intention of compromising on this position.
For now Ukraine has chosen to wait and convey to the Belgian side how important the issue of Crimea’s occupation by Russia is. However, the information that Kyiv authorities have allegedly banned Hadja Lahbib from entering the territory of Ukraine is not true.StopFake continues to debunk fakes about Russia’s war against Ukraine in the articles Fake: Ukrainian refugees in Germany have their kids taken away, Fake: Ukrainian refugees destroyed 31 hectares of Spanish forest while attempting to burn the Russian flag, Manipulation: Ukrainians are ‘tired of war’ and are asking the government to sit down and negotiate.
