The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has lodged its strong protest against the new raid of illegal searches and detentions of residents of various areas of the temporarily occupied Crimea on September 3 and September 4.

The Foreign Ministry said in a comment on Saturday that according to available information, FSB officers detained Eldar Odamanov in the morning on September 3, and Aziz Akhmetov, Asan Akhmetov and Shevket Useinov at night on September 4. In the morning on September 4, after searches in the house, Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Nariman Dzhelyal was detained.

"We consider this punitive raid against the leaders of the Mejlis as punishment for participating in the Crimea Platform Summit on August 23, as well as the next repressions of the Russian Federation aimed at intimidating representatives of the Crimean Tatar people and ousting them from the temporarily occupied peninsula," the Foreign Ministry said.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry demands from Russia to immediately release the detained five people, as well as all the citizens of Ukraine illegally detained by it.

"We call on the international community to resolutely condemn such illegal actions of the occupying state, to step up pressure on the Russian Federation to stop it gross violations of human rights in the territory of the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, to continue active protection of the rights and freedoms of the inhabitants of the Crimean Peninsula, in particular within the framework of the Crimea Platform," the ministry said in its comment.