MFA Ukraine reacts to ongoing persecution of Crimean Tatars in occupied Crimea

That’s according to a statement the ministry posted on August 26, Ukrinform reports.

On August 24, at four o'clock in the morning, Russian security forces raided the homes of Crimean Tatars in Crimea’s Bakhchisarai and the Bakhchisarai district.

FSB operatives detained six men: Remzi Nimetulayev, Ruslan Asanov, Seydamet Mustafayev, Ametkhan Umyerov, and Eldar Yakubov. Abdulmejit Seytumerov, the brother of two Crimean political prisoners originally from Bakhchisaray, who were arrested in March 2020 and sentenced to 14 and 17 years in prison, is also among those detained. All the detainees are activists with the Crimean Solidarity.

Also, on August 25, the invaders brought to administrative responsibility over two dozen Crimean Tatars who were detained after coming to a court in Simferopol to support their arrested relatives and friends.

At the police station, summonses were issued to all detainees, the ministry noted. Among those apprehended was Remzi Zudiyev, 64 the father of journalist and rights defender Lutfia Zudieva. The man suffers from a number of confirmed chronic diseases but he was deprived of the possibility to take mandatory medication, the statement said.

The occupation "court" ruled on administrative arrests for a number of Crimean Tatars for periods of four to seven days.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the acts of persecution based on completely fabricated charges, and called on the international community, in particular the participants of the International Crimea Platform, to continue to exert pressure on Russia for the immediate release of all illegally imprisoned Ukrainian citizens.

The ministry also called for the introduction of sanctions against officials involved in the persecution of Ukrainian citizens.