Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has issued a protest over the pressure of the representatives of Russian migration service in Chechen Republic put on the witnesses running in the criminal cases against citizens of Ukraine Mykola Karpiuk and Stanislav Klykh, who have been illegally detained by Russia.

According to the ministry's comment, on March 24 Russian migration services without serious reasons came to the building, which temporarily keeps witnesses into the cases of Karpiuk and Klykh, and made up a protocol on alleged breach of the term of stay on the territory of Russia permitted by law.

"Taking into consideration absence in the actions of Ukrainian citizens signs of the breach of the Russian migration legislation, we treat such actions of the Russian side as a pressure of justice system and local officials on the witnesses of defendants so that to complicate their involvement into the court process," the ministry said.

According to the ministry, the attempts of Russian leadership by any means to hamper an unbiased consideration of the case of two Ukrainian citizens is a sign of falsification and political motives along with the other cases opened against Ukrainians, who became political prisoners of Russia.

The ministry called to Russia to provide a safe stay and travel of relatives and witnesses running under the criminal cases of illegally detained Ukrainians around Russian territory.