The communication on Ukraine’s denying the assignment and use by the Russian Federation (hereinafter – the RF) of telephone destination codes “365” and “869” under the country code of the RF “+7” to provide services in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine – the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, as well as an appeal to all ITU member countries and their telecommunications operators to refrain from routing in the telecommunications networks of outgoing/incoming international traffic, which may come in the indexes of the numbering plan of the RF, allocated by it for use in the Crimea and Sevastopol city, was published in the Operational Bulletin of the International Telecommunication Union dated October 15, 2018 No. 1158.

The communication of Ukraine was published with the statement of the ITU Secretary-General Mr. Houlin Zhao on supporting Ukraine’s sovereign right to regulate telecommunications sector within its internationally recognized borders. In his statement, Mr. Houlin Zhao also emphasized that ITU, as a specialized UN agency, will continue to adhere to the Resolution of the UN General Assembly “Territorial Integrity of Ukraine” adopted on 27 March 2014 (A/Res/68/262), in a part of “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 the relevant provisions of the resolutions of the UN General Assembly “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine)” adopted on 19 December 2016 (A/Res/71/205) and adopted on 19 December 2017 (A/Res/72/190).

Thus, unilateral actions of the Russian Federation concerning the change of the numbering plan of Ukraine in the temporarily occupied parts of the territory of Ukraine are a violation of international telecommunications law, the Statute, the Convention and the ITU Radio Regulations, which leads to a violation of the international numbering structure integrity defined by the ITU-T Recommendations E.164 (11/2010), E.212 (05/2008), and the established procedure for routing voice telephony traffic in public telecommunications networks, and also create significant obstacles for Ukraine’s sovereign right to ensure the provision of telecommunications services in the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

The communication from Ukraine, in the preparation process of which experts from NCCIR and UCRF were also actively involved, and the statement of the ITU Secretary-General, published in the above mentioned ITU Operational Bulletin, is an extremely important and significant step towards strengthening the counteraction to the illegal use of Ukraine’s numbering resource by the RF in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol in the framework of protection of Ukraine’s national interests in the international arena.