MOSCOW —
Russian President Vladimir Putin marked the nationwide Unity Day vacation with a visit to Crimea, declaring the area will at all times be part of Russia.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a transfer that Western nations regard as illegitimate, within the wake of the overthrow of Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president.
Putin exalted the annexation whereas visiting the town that’s the dwelling port for Russia’s Black Sea fleet on Thursday.
“Our nation has regained its historic unity. This residing and unbreakable bond will be particularly keenly felt, in fact, right here, in Sevastopol, in Crimea,” he mentioned. “They’re with Russia perpetually now, as that’s the sovereign, free and unbending will of the folks, of all our folks.”
Unity Day marks the expulsion in 1612 of Polish-Lithuanian forces that occupied Moscow; the vacation was began in 2005, changing the Soviet-era commemoration on that date of the Bolshevik Revolution.
The day additionally turned an event for anti-immigrant marches by nationalists, however Moscow authorities banned the occasion from going down within the Russian capital this yr.
About 20 folks had been detained as they tried to assemble in a Moscow subway station for a nationalist demonstration, in keeping with OVD-Data, a gaggle that screens political demonstrations and arrests.
