The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expresses its protest against the groundless and politically motivated decisions of the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don dated February 11, 2022. Based on falsified charges those court rulings sentenced the citizens of Ukraine 64-year-old Mr. Zekirya Muratov, with a disability of III group, for 11 years and 6 months of imprisonment, and Mr. Vadym Bektemirov - for 11 years.

According to the verdicts, both citizens of Ukraine at the beginning of the imprisonment should spend three years in prison, where the conditions of detention are the worst in the entire Russian penitentiary system.

Mr. Zekirya Muratov and Mr. Vadym Bektemirov were detained on July 7, 2020, by the FSB of the Russian Federation on the territory of the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and subsequently, in complete violation of the fundamental rules of the international law, were illegally transferred to Rostov-on-Don - the territory of the Russia Federation. The Russian side has unjustifiably accused the Ukrainian citizens, inter alia, in participation in the activities of a terrorist organization and the seizure of power.

Numerous procedural violations during the pre-trial investigation, complete disregard by the judges during the trial of the evidences provided by the defense on the defendants' non-involvement in the incriminated acts indicates purely political motivation of the decisions to imprison Mr. Zekirya Muratov and Mr. Vadym Bektemirov. Those court rulings are yet another proof of Russia's continued systemic political persecution of the Crimean Tatar people.

The Russian Federation must overturn the court's decisions and immediately release Mr. Zekirya Muratov and Mr. Vadym Bektemirov, as well as all illegally detained citizens of Ukraine.

The adoption of politically motivated sentences, as well as the recent new detentions in Crimea of the representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatars people, are anticipated and expected steps by the RF on the eve of the Day of Resistance to Occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol, to be marked in Ukraine on February 26.

We call on the international community to condemn Russia's illegal practice of prosecuting of Ukrainian citizens by illicitly applying force and anti-terrorism legislation, to increase political, diplomatic and sanctions pressure on Russia, to demand the Russian Federation to end violations of the international law in the occupied territories of Ukraine, to continue active work on the protection of rights and freedoms of Ukrainians in Crimea, as well as to actively cooperate within the relevant track of the Crimea Platform.