A library in Sakhalin, Russia, claimed that a globe presented by a South Korean diplomat was distorted, asserting it was a diplomatic faux pas. This was because the regions taken by Russia in the war with Ukraine were still marked as Ukrainian territory.
On the 10th (local time), the state-run Russian news agency TASS reported that the Vladimir Mikhailovich Sangi Central Library in Nogliki, Sakhalin, plans to return the globe it recently received from a South Korean diplomat.
According to the report, the globe was a gift from Park, the head of the Republic of Korea Consulate General's Branch Office in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and it was reported that the Crimean Peninsula and the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions were marked as Ukrainian territory on the globe.
Olga Roznova, the library director, told TASS, "A diplomat surely knows the significance of marking distorted Russian borders on a map and placing such a globe in a local institution, and it's unacceptable."
The library's stance is that they have no choice but to return the globe to the South Korean side to avoid legal responsibility. They also reportedly decided to request an evaluation of the South Korean diplomat for violating the host country's laws from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
After annexing Crimea in 2014, Russia commenced a 'special military operation' against Ukraine in 2022, capturing the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions. Russia considers these regions as its own territory and conducts votes there.
However, Ukraine, which lost its land, as well as the majority of countries including the United States and Europe, do not recognize Russia's territorial expansion. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea also stated that it does not recognize Russia's annexation.