The Ukrainian embassy to the Czech Republic has described Czech President Milos Zeman's recent meeting with an organization loyal to the Crimean authorities as a provocation, lodging its protest over it.

"The embassy of Ukraine declared its resolute protest over the invitation of representatives of the pseudo-Crimean Tatar organization Qirim Birligi, which is under the control of the Russian occupation authorities in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, to official celebrations on the occasion of the Czech Republic's state holiday in Prazsky hrad on October 28 this year," the embassy said on its website.

"We view such steps as another provocation aimed at legitimatizing Russia's illegal actions to try to annex the sovereign territory of Ukraine and try to hamper the development of Ukrainian-Czech relations," Ukrainian diplomats said.

"Flirting" with the Russians looks particularly cynical at a time when "the genuine representative institution of the Crimea Tatars, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People," remains banned in Crimea, the embassy said.

The Ukrainian Embassy expressed the hope that officials and services of the Czech Republic, whose government condemned the occupation of Crimea by Russia, would refrain from any contacts with representatives of the occupation authorities and its puppet organizations in the future.