US President Joe Biden vowed Friday to never recognize Russia's occupation of the Crimean Peninsula, seven years after Moscow seized the territory by force from Ukraine.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media that Russian forces entered the Crimean Peninsula in February 2014 with President Vladimir Putin formally dividing the region into two separate federal subjects of the Russian Federation the following month, moves which continue to be lambasted by Ukraine and the international community.

On what he called the seizure's "sombre anniversary," Biden said the US is reaffirming "a simple truth: Crimea is Ukraine."