The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expresses its categorical protest due to the sentence of pseudo-court of the Russian occupation regime in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in the case of a citizen of Ukraine Volodymyr Balukh.

Having convicted the Ukrainian citizen under the fabricated pretext to nearly 4 years of imprisonment solely for his conscious civil position and peaceful opposition to the illegal occupation of his native land, Russia once again demonstrated to the world its cynical disregard for human rights, freedoms and human life in general.

The Russian Federation, as the occupying state, has neglected the key provisions of international humanitarian law as well as demands of the UN General Assembly, set out in its resolution "Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine)". Ukraine considers Volodymyr Baluch's case as another fact of violation by the Russian Federation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

We demand the Russian side to immediately abolish this inhumane and baseless judgement and cease any persecution of a citizen of Ukraine Volodymyr Balukh.