Talha Yavuz
17 February 2021•Update: 17 February 2021
KYIV, Ukraine
Russian forces detained six Crimean Tatars while raiding their homes in illegally annexed Crimea, a Ukrainian official said Wednesday.
Lyudmila Denisova, the Ukrainian parliament's human rights ombudswoman, said Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) on Wednesday morning raided homes of Crimean Tatars and detained six of them.
Denisova said they were detained for allegedly participating in terrorist activities, and argued that the detentions were politically-motivated.
The Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea launched an investigation into the incident.
The Representation of the President of Ukraine in Crimea condemned the raids and detentions, saying they were based on "political and religious reasons".
It accused Russia of continuing to commit war crimes with the aim of “destroying the resistance in Crimea”.
Russian forces entered the Crimean Peninsula in February 2014, with Russia's President Vladimir Putin formally dividing the region into two separate federal subjects of the Russian Federation the following month.
Crimea's ethnic Tatars have faced persecution since Russia's 2014 takeover of the peninsula, a situation Turkey has decried.
Turkey and the US, as well as the UN General Assembly, view the annexation as illegal.
* Writing and contribution by Iclal Turan in Ankara.
