Russia persecutes 133 Ukrainian citizens for political reasons - Denisova
The Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova stated that the Russian Federation is persecuting 133 Ukrainian citizens for political reasons. She also said that she has been waiting for a response for four months from the Ombudswoman for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, Tatyana Moskalkova, about the possibility of visiting illegally detained Ukrainians.
Denisova announced this during The Crimean Platform: The Way to the De-occupation of Crimea.
“The Russian Federation persecutes 133 Ukrainian citizens for political reasons. 114 of them are illegally held in places of confinement. Among them, fifteen are in Crimea and ninety-nine are in the Russian Federation. Seventy-eight Crimean Tatars are imprisoned", - she said.
The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner also added that all these citizens who are held by the occupiers have minor children, there are 198 of them.
According to Denisova, the right to mother-tongue tuition is violated.
Thus, only 3% of schoolchildren (6,400 students) study the Crimean Tatar language, and the number of students studying in the Ukrainian language has decreased 50 times during the years of occupation, today it is 249 students.
What is known
- Denisova has been awaiting a response from the Russian ombudsman since October regarding her trip to occupied Crimea.
- The Verkhovna Rada’s Commissioner for Human Rights declared violence and threats against Crimeans in Russian detention.
