The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expresses its resolute protest over the illegal sentence of Ukrainian citizen Ahtem Ciygoz by the Russian occupation authorities on the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to 8 years of imprisonment.

Ahtem Ciygoz, the Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, was punished by the Russian occupants for his support of territorial integrity of Ukraine and his fight for human rights. It is yet another manifestation of Russia's repressive policy on the Crimean peninsula, aimed at suppressing dissent voices and opposition to the Kremlin regime, as well as yet another evidence of discrimination against Crimean Tatars.

We demand from the Russian Federation to release Ahtem Ciygoz, to stop repressions against Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians on the territory of the occupied Crimea and to restore the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

We call on the international community to consistently respond to the cynical human rights violations in Crimea and to strengthen the political and diplomatic pressure on the Kremlin in order to ensure the return of the aggressor state to the tenets of international law.