Comment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine regarding the decisions of the Russian occupation authorities in Crimea in the cases of Ukrainian citizens Yevhen Panov and Volodymyr Balukh

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expresses its  resolute protest over the decisions of the so-called “courts” of the  Russian occupation authorities of 13 July 2018 on the cases of citizens  of Ukraine Yevhen Panov and Volodymyr Balukh.

The charges against Yevhen Panov of “involving in subversive and  terrorist activities” are fabricated and politically motivated, and his  sentence to 8 years in a high-security colony is illegitimate.

It is of particular concern that Yevhen Panov faced tortures during  “pre-trial investigations”, which is a flagrant violation of the basic  norms of international law in the human rights area, enshrined, inter  alia, in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a number of  international conventions against tortures and other inhuman treatment.

We strongly condemn the ongoing repressions against Volodymyr Balukh,  who has been denied today the parole by the “zaliznychnyi district  court” in the occupied Simferopol.

We demand from the occupant country to stop repressions against the  citizens of Ukraine Yevhen Panov, Volodymyr Balukh and over 60 of our  compatriots, who are held by the Kremlin regime in Russia and in the  occupied Crimea, to release them and to provide their unhindered return  home. 

We demand once again that Russia must 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 the international community and international human rights  organizations to use all possible legal and diplomatic means aimed at  releasing the Ukrainian citizens, illegally detained in Russia and in  temporarily occupied Crimea; bringing those responsible for human rights  violations and tortures in occupied Crimea to account; as well as to  strengthen their pressure on the occupant state to restore the  sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.