The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expresses its resolute protest over yet another wave of illegal searches and detentions in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, temporarily occupied by Russia.
On the morning of November 8, the Russian occupation authorities are reported to detain a local activist and photographer Seytumer Seytumerov, to conduct a number of illegal searches in the cities of Bakhchysaray, Staryy Krym and the villages of Zarichne and Kirovske.
A new wave of repression testifies to Kremlin’s ongoing consistent and deliberate pressure on the members of the “Crimean Solidarity” association, composed of relatives of illegally detained Ukrainian citizens in Crimea, activists and lawyers.
The crackdown on the “Crimean Solidarity” is an attempt to intimidate those who help the families of illegally imprisoned Ukrainian citizens in the occupied Crimea and tell the truth about Kremlin’s repressive policies on the peninsula despite the threats of the Russian occupation authorities.
Detentions of Timur Ibrahimov, Marlen Asanov, Memet Belyalov, Ernest Ametov, Server Zekiryayev and Seyran Saliyev in the city of Bakhchysaray on 11 October 2017 were the first wave of persecutions against the “Crimean Solidarity”.
The Kremlin resorts to cynical methods to force activists and relatives of Ukrainian political prisoners to remain silent and to abandon initiatives of solidarity and mutual assistance.
There are no rights to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly in Crimea, temporarily occupied by Russia. Russian occupants realize their weakness and are afraid that the truth about Russia’s crimes in Crimea, for which they will be definitely brought to justice, extends beyond the peninsula.
We demand that Russia halt the state of lawlessness in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine and ensure an unhindered access of international monitoring missions to the Crimean peninsula.
Ukraine calls on the international community to publicly condemn large-scale violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the temporarily Russia-occupied Crimea, to stand for the population of Crimea which is suffering from the repressions of the Russian occupation authorities, and to strengthen pressure, in particular sanctions, against the aggressor state.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine