The Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea condemns the regular actions of the occupation administration of the Russian Federation aimed at persecuting the representative bodies of the Crimean Tatar people in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. 

The so-called “Supreme Court of Crimea”, controlled by the Russian occupying power, illegally sentenced Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Refat Chubarov to six years in a maximum security penal colony, 200 hours of community service and ordered to pay a fine of RUB 200,000 for alleged plotting mass riots near the Crimean Parliament building on February 26, 2014. This is nothing more than a continuation of the policy of ousting the indigenous Crimean Tatar people and its representative bodies from Crimea and an act of suppression of any manifestations of disobedience to the occupying power and another attempt to erase in the temporarily occupied Crimea any other national identity except Russian.

Contrary to the political realities of the temporarily occupied Crimea, Ukraine creates conditions for citizens’ rights, who are forced to leave the temporarily occupied Crimea in connection with the occupation and realization of the rights of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people.

  The Resolution on the Statement of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada regarding guarantees to the Crimean Tatar people within the Ukrainian State (March 20, 2014 № 1140-VII) recognizes the Mejlis, the executive body of the Kurultai, and the Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar People as the highest representative bodies of the Crimean Tatar people.

Decree of the President of Ukraine №58/2020 On the Day of Resistance to the Occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol honors the courage and heroism of the citizens of Ukraine in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

Ukraine is taking consistent steps to maximize support for the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. On May 18 this year, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted a draft law “On the indigenous peoples of Ukraine” (№ 5506) to the Verkhovna Rada as urgent. 

Once again, we call on the Russian Federation to end the persecution of Ukrainian citizens on national and religious grounds for their views, beliefs and position in the temporarily occupied Crimea.