Comment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine regarding the decision of the Russian occupation authorities in Crimea in the case of Volodymyr Balukh
The Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expresses
its resolute protest over the
illegal and politically motivated decision of the
so-called "court"
of the Russian
occupation authorities in Crimea in
the case of citizen of
Ukraine Volodymyr Balukh.
Sentencing Volodymyr Balukh
to three years and seven
months in a penal colony under
absurd and fabricated charges the Kremlin has
again testified to its unwillingness
to give up
the policy of targeted repressions
and intimidations against the Ukrainian
citizens in the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula.
We urge the
aggressor and occupant state to halt violations
of human rights and fundamental
freedoms of the residents of
the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory and to
immediately release Volodymyr Balukh and other illegally
detained citizens of Ukraine.
Russia must stop
the illegal occupation of the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea and
the city of Sevastopol and
implement to their full the
resolutions of the UN General Assembly "Territorial integrity of Ukraine"
of 27 March 2014, "Situation of human
rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea
and the city
of Sevastopol (Ukraine)" of 19 December 2016 and of 19 December 2017 as well as
the order of the International
Court of Justice regarding provisional measures in the in
the case of Ukraine vs
Russia regarding the application of the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination.
We call on
our international partners to intensify
political and diplomatic pressure on the Kremlin
in order to make the
occupant state to stop criminal
oppression and persecutions of Ukrainian citizens in the occupied
Crimea and to withdraw from
the sovereign territories of Ukraine.