KIEV, March 17 - Ukraine has called on the international community to consolidate efforts to pressure Russia into returning Crimea and paying compensation for the losses caused to Ukraine.

"We are calling on the global community to pay more attention to the problem of occupied Crimea, to consolidate international pressure on Russia to force it back immediately into complying with international law, cancelling all its illegitimate decisions that led to the temporary occupation of the Ukrainian territory, and compensating for the losses caused to Ukraine and its citizens," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Tuesday.