United Nations : Washington's Crimea-related sanctions against Moscow will remain in place until the peninsula is returned to Ukraine, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley told the Security Council.

"The US continues to condemn and call for an immediate end to the Russian occupation in Crimea. Crimea is a part of Ukraine. Our Crimea-related sanctions will remain ...," Haley said in her first public remarks to the Security Council, on Thursday.

The sanctions were imposed on Russia over its 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula, Sputnik reported. IANS