The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is alarmed by the verdict of the military tribunal in Rostov-on-Don issued on 25th August 2015 in the case of opponents to the Russian annexation of Crimea - Ukrainian movie director Oleg Sentsov, given a 20-year sentence, and Ukrainian activist Alexander Kolchenko, who received a 10-year sentence, both for planning terrorist acts.

Russian courts are not competent to judge acts committed outside the internationally-recognised territory of Russia. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers the entire legal proceedings as fabricated, confession of witnesses as coerced and the term of imprisonment given to alleged perpetrators as absurd.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs therefore calls for immediate release of Oleg Sentsov and Alexander Kolchenko.