Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday told European Council President Charles Michel that the European Union was continuing to discriminate against residents of Crimea, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, prompting Western sanctions. The West and most of the world say the territory is Ukrainian. Kyiv wants the peninsula back.

"Attention was drawn to the fact that the European Union continues to conduct a discriminatory policy towards inhabitants of the peninsula," the Kremlin said in a readout of a phone call between Putin and Michel, without giving further details.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Jon Boyle)