The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expresses its strong protest in connection with the next raid of illegal searches and detentions of residents of various regions of the occupied Crimea on August 17.

The corresponding statement by Ukrainian diplomats was made public on Tuesday.

"According to the available information, after searches at 4:00, at the houses of the Crimean Tatars in Simferopol and Bakhchisarai regions of the temporarily occupied Republic of Crimea and in Balaklava and Nakhimov districts of the city of Sevastopol, five citizens of Ukraine were illegally detained, all Crimean Tatars: Imam Raif Fevziev and activists Rustem Murasov, Rustem Tairov, Dzhabbar Bekirov, Zaur Abdullayev," the statement reads.

It notes that the Russian Federation is once again "using its repressive apparatus to persecute and intimidate representatives of the disloyal Crimean Tatar people, suppress freedom of religion, and oust the indigenous people, the Crimean Tatars, from the occupied peninsula."

Ukrainian diplomats clarify that in accordance with international law, the Russian Federation, as an occupying state, is obliged to immediately stop political repressions against the local population of the Crimean peninsula temporarily occupied by it.

"The Russian Federation must also fully comply with the provisions of UN General Assembly Resolutions 68/262 of March 27, 2014 'Territorial Integrity of Ukraine' and 'Situation of Human Rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol [Ukraine]' 2016-2020. And a ruling of the International Court of Justice on the imposition of measures under the claim of Ukraine against the Russian Federation on the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. We demand from Russia to immediately release the five people detained today, as well as all the Ukrainian citizens illegally detained by it," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

It also calls on the international community to continue active protection of the rights and freedoms of the inhabitants of the Crimean peninsula and to increase pressure on the Russian Federation to stop its gross violations of human rights in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, in particular within the framework of the new international format initiated by Ukraine – the Crimea Platform.

"We regard the indicated illegal searches and detentions as a provocation on the eve of the Crimea Platform summit," Ukrainian diplomats said.