Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expresses its resolute protest against the March 3, 2021, groundless and politically motivated decision of the Southern District Military Court of the Russian Federation convicting Ukrainian citizen Oleh Prykhodko on trumped-up charges of "preparing a terrorist act, and manufacturing and illegally storing explosives".

Pro-Ukrainian Crimean activist Oleh Prykhodko was illegally detained on October 10, 2019, by Russian occupation administration law enforcement agencies on the territory of the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Afterward, in violation of international humanitarian law, he was transferred to the city of Rostov-on-Don, the Russian Federation.

The court sentenced Oleh Prykhodko to five years in prison with the first year to be spent in the prison with one of the harshest conditions in the Russian penitentiary system and the rest at a penal colony.

“The Russian occupants of Crimea continue their systematic policy of repressions against Ukrainian citizens. Oleh Prykhodko’s case has all the hallmarks of politically motivated charges. Oleh's attorney has repeatedly drawn the court’s attention to numerous procedural violations during the pre-trial investigation. Furthermore, the court completely ignored the evidence provided by the defense lawyers, proving Prykhodko’s innocence of the acts he was charged with. Today's verdict is yet another proof of suppression of any dissent in the occupied Crimea”, First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Emine Dzhaparova stressed.

The Russian Federation must annul the court ruling and immediately release Oleh Prykhodko, as well as all other illegally detained Ukrainian citizens.

We call on the international community to denounce resolutely this unlawful sentence, to protest Russia's illegal prosecution of civil dissent, to demand that Russia stop violating international humanitarian law and human rights law in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, to continue active engagement in the protection of the occupied Crimea residents' rights using both national and international mechanisms, and to increase pressure on Russia, including by means of sanctions.