GENEVA, April 27. /TASS/. The Ukrainian authorities have no grounds to claim their sovereign rights over the territory of Crimea or the peninsula's population, Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, an American international lawyer and a former independent expert of the UN Human Rights Council, said. "Ukraine has zero claim over the people of Crimea. Historical ties are lacking. This Russian territory came in 1955 to Ukraine by decision of [Nikita] Khrushchev (First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1953-1964), who made an administrative decision, not one of sovereignty," he wrote on his X page. De Zayas pointed out that the term "annexation" is not applicable to the case of Crimea. According to the norms of international law, annexation takes place only in the case of a hostile invasion with subsequent occupation, the expert emphasized. "The Crimea issue is not one of aggression or annexation, but one of the self-determination of the people of Crimea, a majority of whom are Russian. The re-incorporation of Crimea into Russia was a direct result of the illegal coup d’etat in Maidan," he pointed out. The lawyer emphasized that any peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine should take into account "the wishes of the populations concerned." "As to Donetsk and Lugansk, the UN should have organized a plebiscite already back in 1991," he added. On March 16, 2014, a referendum was held on the peninsula’s reunification with Russia. Over 80% of voters participated in the plebiscite, the overwhelming majority of whom supported reunification (96.7% in Crimea and 95.6% in Sevastopol). On March 18, 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty on the admission of Crimea and Sevastopol to Russia, and on March 21, the document was ratified by the Federal Assembly. Despite the convincing results of the referendum, reflecting the clear will of the local population, Kiev has refused to recognize Crimea as part of Russia.