Ukraine
Communication of 21.IX.2018:
Ukraine expresses its strong disagreement about inclusion, upon request of the Russian Federation, in the ITU Operational Bulletin No. 1127 dated 1 July 2017 (https://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-t/opb/sp/T-SP-OB.1127-2017-OAS-PDF-E.pdf) of illegal National Destination Codes “365” and “869” allocated by the Russian Federation under the Country Code “+7”, which is not Ukraine`s Country Code, for public telecommunication in the temporarily occupied part of the territory of Ukraine – the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (hereinafter “Crimea”).
In this regard, it is necessary to recall that the UN General Assembly in its resolutions 68/262 of 27 March 2014, 71/205 of 19 December 2016 and 72/190 of 19 December 2017 confirmed the sovereignty, political independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders. By these resolutions, the UN General Assembly also condemned the ongoing temporary occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and reaffirmed the non-recognition of its annexation.
It is also essential to recall the Agreed statement by the ITU Secretary-General at the 2014 Plenipotentiary Conference (Busan, 2014), published in Document PP-14/174, Annex B (https://www.itu.int/md/S14-PP-C-0174/en), through which the Union expressed its serious concerns about situation in Crimea and reaffirmed, inter alia, that the ITU should take into account the relevant provisions of the United Nations General Assembly resolution 68/262 of 27 March 2014 “Territorial integrity of Ukraine” calling upon all specialized agencies of the United Nations “not to recognize any alteration of the status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and to refrain from any action or dealing that might be interpreted as recognizing any such altered status”.
In the above mentioned Agreed statement the ITU Secretary-General further confirmed that the same principles should also apply in respect of any actions that might be required of the General Secretariat and the three Bureaux in order to assist its Member States and, in particular, Ukraine to ensure the use of all its international telecommunication services and resources as well as of any actions that might be taken by future ITU conferences and assemblies pertaining to Ukraine`s requirements in regard to use of the frequency spectrum and numbering codes on its territory.
Such unilateral actions by the Russian Federation aimed at changing the National Numbering Plan of Ukraine in the temporarily occupied part of the territory of Ukraine gravely violate international telecommunications law and create significant obstacles to the exercising by Ukraine of its sovereign right to regulate its telecommunication and to use its numbering resource within internationally recognized borders of Ukraine, including Crimea. They have also compromised the integrity of international public telecommunication numbering plan as defined by the ITU-T Recommendations E.164 (11/2010), E.212 (05/2008) and proper traffic routing by public telecommunication networks.
In accordance with the provisions of the ITU Constitution and Convention (Geneva 1992), as amended by the Plenipotentiary Conferences (Kyoto 1994, Minneapolis 1998, Marrakesh 2002, Antalya 2006, Guadalajara 2010), as well as relevant ITU Recommendations on allocation and management of international numbering resource, the Country Code “+380” and Mobile Country or Geographical Area Code “255” shall be used for the identification of calling line and for the provision of international telecommunication services within internationally recognized borders of Ukraine, including temporarily occupied part of its territory. In this regard, Ukraine calls upon all telecommunication operators in their respective countries to refrain from routing in the telecommunication public networks of the outgoing / incoming international traffic, which can be received in the indices of numbers of the numbering plan of the Russian Federation, allocated for the use in the territory of Crimea, by telecommunications operators of the Russian Federation, and under the international mobile country identification code of land-based networks with radio access “250” (MCC) identification codes (MNC): 32; 33; 34; 60.
Secretary-General of ITU:
Having considered the above communication of Ukraine, I wish to express my serious concern about the situation described in the above communication.
As stated by my predecessor at the 16th plenary meeting of the 2014 Plenipotentiary Conference (Busan), I hereby reaffirm that all ITU Member States have to respect the fundamental principles set forth in the instruments of the Union, in particular the sovereign right of each Member State, amongst which is Ukraine, to regulate its telecommunications within its internationally recognized borders.
As a Specialized Agency, the Union will fully continue, as it has always done it, to take into account requests handed down by the United Nations General Assembly; that includes the call addressed to Specialized Agencies in the UNGA Resolution 68/262 (2014) “not to recognize any alteration of the status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol” and “to refrain from any action or dealing that might be interpreted as recognizing any such altered status”, as well as relevant provisions related to such status of the UNGA Resolutions 71/205 (2016) and 72/190 (2017).
The same principles shall also apply in respect of any actions that may be required of the General Secretariat and the three Bureaux, including the ITU publications and databases publishing, in order to assist Ukraine to ensure the use of all its international telecommunication services and resources as well as of any actions that may be taken by ITU conferences and assemblies pertaining to Ukraine’s requirement in regard to use of the frequency spectrum and numbering codes on its territory.