The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Ukraine strongly condemns the forced transfer of illegally convicted Ukrainian citizens from temporarily occupied Crimea to Russia and calls on the international community to introduce new sanctions restrictions against officials involved in the persecution of Ukrainian citizens.

This follows from a commentary by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry received by Interfax-Ukraine. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine strongly condemns the forced transfer from temporarily occupied Crimea to Russia to serve their sentences of illegally convicted Ukrainian citizens Nariman Dzhelyal Aziz and Asan Akhmetov,” the ministry said in the commentary.

As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs notes, Dzhelyal is the first deputy chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, which has been banned in Crimea since 2016 as an "extremist organization," Aziz and Asan Akhmetov are Crimean Tatar activists. "All three were detained by the security forces of the occupation administration in September 2021 on fabricated charges. In the fall of the same year, Nariman Dzhelyala and the Akhtemov brothers were additionally accused of crimes that they did not commit," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in the statement.

Reportedly, after almost a year of "investigation" of the so-called "criminal cases," on September 21, 2022, the Russian occupation administration sentenced Nariman Dzhelyal to 17 years of imprisonment in a maximum security colony, a fine of RUB 700,000 rubles and one year and six months of restriction of freedom of movement. Asan Akhtemov was sentenced to 15 years with a fine of RUB 500,000 and a period of restriction of freedom of movement of one year. Aziz Akhtemov received a sentence of 13 years in prison, a fine of RUB 500,000 and restriction of freedom of movement for one year.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine states "since the temporary occupation, the Russian occupation administration in Ukrainian Crimea has launched a targeted repressive campaign, the purpose of which was to eradicate any forms of disloyalty. One of the main victims of the repressions was the indigenous people of Crimea – the Crimean Tatars, hundreds of whom were subjected to various forms of persecution on ethnic, political, religious grounds."

"Russia must implement the resolution of the UN General Assembly. The situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine, adopted on December 15, 2022, which requires the release of illegally detained Ukrainians," the ministry said.

"We call on the international community and Ukraine's partners, including within the framework of the International Crimea Platform, to continue to put pressure on Russia with a view to the immediate release of all Ukrainian citizens illegally detained by the Russian occupation administration in Crimea, and to introduce new sanctions restrictions against officials involved in persecution of Ukrainian citizens," the Foreign Ministry said in the statement.