Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada has called on the international community to recognize the deportation of Crimean Tatars in 1944 as genocide, and condemned the ban imposed by a Russian court on the work of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis on the territory of Crimea.

The Rada address to the UN, the European Parliament, PACE, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and world leaders on Crimean Tatars was supported by 240 parliamentarians on Wednesday morning.

The Verkhovna Rada demanded that Russia "stop violating human rights and freedoms in Crimea as an integral part of the sovereign part of the territory of Ukraine, specifically, the rights of Crimean Tatars as an indigenous people of Ukraine."

Stating systemic pressure and "the ethnically and politically motivated persecution of Crimean Tatars, their (representative) bodies, such as the Mejlis, and assembly of the Crimean Tatar people, the authors of the address called it "a deliberate policy of ethnocide against Crimean Tatars."

The Ukrainian parliament called on the world leaders and public figures "to make the necessary efforts to protect Crimean Tatars from discrimination and persecution by Russia."

The Rada called on countries and international organizations to participate on May 18 in memorial events on the day of remembrance of the deportation of Crimean Tatars.