The United States is concerned by the ban on activities of the Mejlis, the highest ruling body of the Crimean Tatar people, in Russia, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner has said.

"We did put out a statement on April 21st and we called on the Russian Federation to reverse its – the ministry of justice's recent decision to designate this – the Mejlis, as an extremist organization as well as a decision by de facto authorities in Crimea to suspend this democratic institution. We're obviously disturbed that – by the reports banning the Mejlis council because, frankly, it removes what little representation and recourse that the Tatars have left under Russian occupation," the spokesman said at a briefing on Tuesday.

Toner added that the Crimean Tatars faced oppression, repression and discrimination in Russian-occupied Crimea. In his words, almost 10,000 of them have been forced to flee their homeland and those who remain have been subjected to abuses, beatings, arbitrary detentions, et cetera.

"And these brutalities and human rights abuses must end... You know that we have sanctions in place. We do not accept Russi's occupation of Crimea. Those sanctions will remain in place until Crimea ends its occupation of Crimea," the spokesman said.

As reported, Crimea's Supreme Court on April 26 designated the Crimean Tatar Mejlis as an extremist entity and banned its activity in Russia, ruling in favor of a lawsuit filed by de facto prosecutor of Crimea Natalia Poklonskaya.