Crimea will be liberated, activities of Mejlis will be restored – Ukrainian Foreign Ministry

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has said it firmly believes that the Ukrainian Crimea, like all other territories of Ukraine temporarily occupied by Russia, will be liberated soon, and the legal activities of all representative bodies of Ukraine, including the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, will be restored.

The ministry said this in a statement on the anniversary of the Mejlis ban, according to Ukrinform.

According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, for seven consecutive years, Russia has been ignoring the Order of the International Court of Justice of April 19, 2017, in the case "Ukraine v. Russian Federation," which obliges Russia to "refrain from maintaining or imposing limitations on the ability of the Crimean Tatar people to conserve its representative institutions, including the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people," and to ensure the free access to and from the Crimean Peninsula for the leadership and members of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. More than 180 Ukrainian citizens, residents of Crimea, continue to be held in prisons on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula and in Russia for political reasons. In particular, the Russian occupiers illegally detain the First Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, Nariman Dzhelyal.

"We firmly believe that soon the Ukrainian Crimea, like all other temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine by Russia, will be liberated, and the legitimate activities of all representative bodies of Ukraine, including the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, will be restored. The representatives of the occupation authorities will receive the appropriate legal assessment and punishment for their unlawful and criminal actions," the ministry said.

April 26, 2023 marks the seventh anniversary of an illegal ban imposed by the Russian occupation administration in Crimea on the activities of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people under the trumped-up pretext of recognizing its activities as "extremist."