Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine: Russia turned Crimea into «the bondage island»

The Russian Federation has actually turned the occupied Crimea into «the bondage island» suppressing all freedoms and human rights on a peninsula. The Foreign Ministry spokesman Mariana Betsa said about it at the briefing.

«Today there is a new wave of raids in the occupied Crimea again. In fact, the repressive machine doesn’t stop. We understand that the Russian Federation is doing everything to ensure Crimea to become «the bondage island». It is already «the unfreedom island»,  the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said, as Ukrinform reports.

Betsa stressed that Russia suppresses all human rights and freedoms on the peninsula.

In addition, according to Betsa, there are illegally held 44 Ukrainians in Russia and Crimea: in Russia − 17 Ukrainian citizens and in the occupied Crimea − another 27, as RBC-Ukraine informs.

She has also noted that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine sent more than 100 applications and 200 protest notes to free the Ukrainians. Betz reminded that in Russia there illegally retained Roman Sushchenko, Evgeniy Panov, Oleg Sentsov, Aleksander Kolchenko, Aleksey Chornyy, Nicholay Karpyuk, Stanislav Klikh, Valentin Vygovskyy, Aleksander Kostenko, Sergey Litvinov, Ruslan Zeyturaev, Nuri Primov, Andrey Kolomiets, Andrey Zakhtey and others.

To remind some facts, on Thursday, January 26 the Russian security forces detained a lawyer Emil Kurbedinov in the occupied Crimea. His home and office were held an illegal house check.