24 September 2024
WEEKLY UPDATE ON THE SITUATION IN OCCUPIED CRIMEA ON SEPTEMBER 24, 2024
Main news of the week
▶ The illegally convicted citizen journalist from Crimea, Remzi Bekirov, has been held in the punitive isolation cell of Correctional Colony No. 33 in the city of Abakan (Republic of Khakasiia, Russia) for almost a month. According to reports, after Bekirov arrived at Russian Colony No. 33, he was placed in the isolation cell from a quarantine cell on August 12 for five days, and his stay there was extended for various ‘justified reasons’. These reasons included the absence of a head covering, refusal to greet a Russian prison officer, and for reading a prayer.
Crimes committed by the Russian Federation
▶ As of September 2024, Russia has illegally imprisoned 218 people in occupied Crimea on ethnic, religious, and political grounds, including 132 Crimean Tatars.
▶ Аn activist with a visual impairment from Crimea, Oleksandr Sizikov, who was
groundlessly sentenced to 17 years in a penal colony by the Russian occupiers, was found in a temporary detention center in Bakhchysarai. During the illegal detention, Russian security forces refused to provide a “warrant” for the man’s arrest and threatened to use force against him.
▶ Illegally convicted by Russia, Crimean political prisoner Aziz Akhtemov was illegally taken from the prison in Yeniseisk, Krasnoyarsk region of the Russian Federation, to an unknown destination. The man’s current location is unknown.
▶ An occupation “court” unlawfully sentenced two people to 6 and 20 years in prison in a trumped-up case of an alleged attempt to blow up the car of a Russian Federal Security Service officer in Kerch. In addition, the men allegedly collected information about the railway infrastructure of Crimea and the movements of the Russian occupation army.
▶ The Russian occupiers did not issue inhalers to Tymur Yalkabov, a chronically asthmatic Crimean citizen illegally convicted by Russia until he had an attack. The occupiers systematically fail to provide the necessary medical care to convicted unlawfully Ukrainian citizens from Crimea, which causes their health to deteriorate sharply.
▶ Crimean resident Eldar Kantimirov, illegally convicted by the Russian Federation, is being illegally transferred to a Russian prison in the Republic of Buryatia (Russia), more than 7,000 kilometers from occupied Alushta. The political prisoner said that he was being illegally transferred in punishment for demanding his rights and appealing against the violation of his rights in court while he was in the Russian prison. The man was systematically placed in a punishment cell and subjected to psychological and physical pressure for being a citizen of Ukraine. During his illegal detention, the man’s health problems worsened, with pain in his lower back and a pinched spinal nerve.
▶ The Russian occupiers unlawfully sentenced a Crimean resident to 12 years in prison on a trumped-up case of allegedly “attempting to assassinate a representative of the occupation administration.”
The use of occupied Crimea as a springboard for attacks on Ukraine and the militarization of the peninsula
▶ According to the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russian occupiers carried out a series of massive attacks on Ukrainian territory during the week, primarily targeting civilian buildings. These attacks included the use of four Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles and 51 Shahed attack UAVs, some of which were launched from the territory of occupied Crimea.
▶ Activists from the ATESH resistance movement discovered a 9K317M Buk-M3 medium-range anti-aircraft missile system belonging to the Russian occupiers on the coast of the Gagarinsky district of Sevastopol. Additionally, activists conducted surveillance of the logistics base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, where food warehouses are located that supply the occupiers’ military units on the peninsula.
Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion and spread its military aggression throughout Ukraine, occupied Crimea has been used by Russia as a military base for spreading aggression in various forms. From the peninsula, the occupiers continue to launch attacks on the territory of Ukraine, including on civilian infrastructure.
The resistance movement of Ukrainian citizens in occupied Crimea
▶ Russia has already prosecuted 979 people in occupied Crimea for expressing solidarity with Ukraine, who are being subjected to administrative penalties in the form of illegal fines and arrests.
▶ A 19-year-old resident of occupied Yevpatoriia allegedly set fire to cars for a reward. The boy was detained by Russian security forces, who pressured him to apologize on camera and sign a contract with the Russian occupation army. The forced conscription of residents of the occupied regions is a violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions on the Treatment of Civilian Persons in Occupation.
▶ A resident of Crimea criticized Russian aggression against Ukraine and condemned Russian war crimes in Ukraine on her social media. Russian security forces detained the woman and accused her of allegedly “discrediting the Russian army.”
▶ A resident of Yevpatoriia condemned the Russian war against Ukraine in a public place. The occupiers detained the man for allegedly “discrediting the Russian army” and sent the materials to the occupation “court.”
▶ Activists of the Yellow Ribbon movement held a resistance action in occupied Simferopol, distributing patriotic postcards reminding that the Crimean Peninsula belongs to Ukraine. Resistance actions were also held in Sevastopol, Yalta, and Yevpatoriia. The activists also reported that a teacher of the ‘Crimean branch’ of the Russian State University of Justice was suspended from teaching classes for saying that the Ukrainian government is constitutional and legitimate.
▶ Activists of the Crimean Combat Seagulls reported the sounds of explosions in occupied Simferopol and a subsequent fire.
The full-scale invasion was marked by a rapid increase in solidarity and resistance actions by residents of occupied Crimea against the Russian occupiers. Residents of occupied territories unite in resistance movements, such as the above-mentioned Yellow Ribbon, Crimean Combat Seagulls, Zla Mavka, and ATESH, or act individually. To suppress the resistance movement of residents in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea after February 24, 2022, the occupiers actively began to prosecute and bring to administrative responsibility Ukrainian citizens under the article on the so-called “discrediting the Russian army”.
▶ The Zla Mavka resistance movement continues to keep its diaries, which inform about the reality of life in occupied territories. The activists also continue their resistance action by distributing stickers with quotes from Ukrainian poetry. Lines from the poems of Taras Shevchenko and Lina Kostenko, which remind us that the struggle continues, have appeared in Simferopol, Sevastopol, Bakhchisarai, and Kerch.
De-occupation of Crimea is integral to ending the war and restoring peace. Ukrainians are doing everything they can to stop the aggressor and protect the entire world from Russia’s criminal actions. This is not a local or regional issue but a threat to the world and international order.