The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expresses its strong protest against the ruling of the Moscow's Lefortovsky Court to extend the arrest of Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko and demands to immediately release him, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marian Betsa has said.

"Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expressed protest in connection with the ruling to extend the arrest of Roman Sushchenko for another three months until April 30, 2017, which is actually based on trumped-up charges. It is a political process and a political case. The Russian judicial branch strongly denies to change the preventive measure to a not custodial detention, which indicates at political bias of the judicial system and continuation of the psychological pressure on the Ukrainian citizen," Betsa said in her comments to Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.

She also said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on the Russian authorities to immediately stop the arbitrariness against Ukrainian citizens and free Ukrainian journalist Sushchenko.

As reported, on Wednesday, the Lefortovsky court of Moscow sanctioned Sushchenko's arrest until the end of April, who is being charged of espionage by Russia.