“I invite Mr. Klimkin to visit the peninsula in the middle of March and look at the real moods of the Crimeans and the dynamics of the development of the peninsula,” RIA Novosti quotes him.

Hempel noted that Klimkin, having been on the peninsula, will radically change his position with regard to the Crimea.

“I am sure that after the visit he will become a friend of the Russian Crimea, if, of course, he has the courage to face the truth,” he added.

Earlier, Klimkin said that five years after the reunification with Russia, the Crimea "became more Ukrainian." The president of the Ukrainian Analytical Center, Alexander Okhrimenko, in an interview with NSN, evaluated this statement of Klimkin.

Crimea became the Russian region after the referendum held in March 2014, in which the majority of the inhabitants of the peninsula spoke in favor of reunification with Russia.