Legally, for 3 years of the war, Ukraine could not prove the presence of the Russian army in the Donbass and its occupation by the Russian Federation. This was stated by the Deputy Minister on Affairs of Temporarily Occupied Territories and internally displaced persons Heorhiy Tuka in an interview to Apostrophe.
It is noted that since there are no Russian authorities on the territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts that are not controlled by Ukraine, it is legally impossible to talk about occupation.
"Despite all the efforts, we cannot legally prove the presence in the Donbass of the regular Russian army for now", - Tuka stressed, noting that it was confirmed even by the recent decision of the court in The Hague.
"We can rend a hundred vyshyvankas a day, but this is not a solution to the question! This is absolutely purely emotional things. This can be done only by the deputies working for their own electorate, deceiving it and manipulating", - the deputy minister added, having stressed that there are international terms and concepts that Ukraine should operate by proving the facts of Russia's invasion of Ukrainian territory in the courts.