Russian Embassy Releases Map Recognizing Crimea as Ukraine's

The Russian Embassy in South Africa has shared a map online that shows illegally annexed Crimea as part of Ukraine.

A post on the embassy's account on X, formerly known as Twitter, attempted to raise the profile of the BRICS grouping of world economies but appeared instead to endorse Crimea as being part of Ukraine.

The X post showed a world map with Ukraine's borders containing not only eastern parts of its territory that Russia claims to have annexed but also Crimea—which was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014—in addition to BRICS members.

While BRICS refers specifically to the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the map posted on the embassy's account also included Ethiopia, Argentina, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Iran shaded in green, along with the five BRICS members.

The post was captioned "Reality of a new multipolar world."

Ukraine, the White House, and its allies in the European Union and NATO do not acknowledge Russia's claims to Crimea and eastern Ukraine and have called for them to be returned in their entirety to Kyiv's control.

Since being published early on Monday, August 28, the post has attracted more than 292,000 views as well as a number mocking comments.

The X account C'est Carre, whose post was seen more than 10,000 times, said: "Oh, Crimea is not Russia? Nice."

Mira of Kyiv, who shared a photo of Crimea being part of Ukraine, posted: "So you agree."

Cloooud commented: "I fully agree with this map. Crimea is Ukraine."

Just hours after being shared on X, the post was deleted from the embassy's account. The account has not shared any additional comment or post acknowledging the deleted post.

Russia annexed Crimea, a peninsula in the south of Ukraine, following a referendum that was illegal under the constitution of Ukraine. Its result is not recognized by the U.S. or the overwhelming majority of nations and the referendum was slammed by international observers.

Following Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Russia has taken control of parts of eastern territories which, like Crimea, have a majority of Russian speakers living there.

The regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhizhia were annexed into the Russian Federation last year following referendums that were condemned by the United Nations, and have only been recognized by North Korea.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Embassy in South Africa for comment.