US condemns persecution of Crimean Tatars in occupied Crimea

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has condemned the ongoing persecution of Crimean Tatars and other "disloyalists" by Russian authorities in Crimea.

“The U.S. strongly condemns the continued persecution of Crimean Tatars by Russian occupation authorities, including a new wave of mass arrests and detentions. Russia must end its persecution of Crimean Tatars, its occupation of Ukraine, and release all political prisoners there,” Blinken wrote on his X social media page, formerly known as Twitter, Caliber.Az reports.

The Crimean Solidarity Initiative reported that at dawn on 24 August, Russian security forces searched Crimean Tatars' homes in the city of Bakhchysarai and the district and detained six Crimean Solidarity activists. All are to be held in pre-trial detention until the end of October.

On 25 August, there was a mass detention of Crimean Tatars near the Kyiv District Court in Russian-occupied Crimea, where they had come to support the people detained earlier. Twenty-three people were detained. A representative of the military enlistment office visited the detention centre in the evening and issued them with military draft notices, but the detainees refused to take them.

On 26 August, 22 detainees were sentenced to administrative arrest for one to five days [administrative arrest is a type of incarceration related to administrative offences [Russia’s Code of Administrative Offences – ed.].