30 July 2024
WEEKLY UPDATE ON THE SITUATION IN OCCUPIED CRIMEA ON JULY 30, 2024
Main news of the week
▶ On the night of July 26, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked the territory of the Russian military airfield in Novofedorivka, Saky region. The hit caused the detonation of enemy ammunition and a fire. There were up to 16 enemy aircraft at the airport. In addition, the location of the Russian air defense system was hit. As a result, a radar station was destroyed.
Crimes committed by the Russian Federation
▶ As of July 30, 2024, Russia has illegally imprisoned 217 people in occupied Crimea on ethnic, religious, and political grounds, including 132 Crimean Tatars.
▶ The occupiers unlawfully sentenced a man to 3.5 years in a strict regime colony for allegedly participating in the Noman Çelebicihan Crimean Tatar Volunteer Battalion. The Russians use the grounds of alleged participation in a volunteer battalion to persecute Ukrainian citizens in the occupied territories who have ever been involved in military affairs.
▶ The occupiers illegally transferred Crimean political prisoner Seiran Saliiev to harsher conditions of detention in a colony in the Tula region of the Russian Federation. Since the beginning of the year, the man has been unreasonably sent to the punishment cell several times for allegedly “violating the dress code.”
▶ Enver Omerov, an activist and public figure, was illegally sentenced to 18 years in prison by the occupiers in the so-called “Bilohirsk group case.” Recently, he was transferred from Prison #2 in Vladimir, Russia, where he had been held for two and a half years, to a high-security colony in the Republic of Mari El, Russia, two thousand kilometers away from Crimea. This unjust transfer is part of a pattern of illegal arrests and quiet deportation of Ukrainian citizens from the Crimean Peninsula by the occupiers.
▶ The occupation “court” has extended the illegal arrest of Crimean Tatar activists Memet Liumanov, Rustem Osmanov, Aziz Azizov, and Mustafa Abduramanov until November 4, 2024. The activists were detained after illegal searches on March 5 for covering in the media the crimes of the occupiers.
▶ The occupiers illegally used the music of the famous American composer Philip Glass in the “Opera and Ballet Theater” of occupied Sevastopol. The occupiers are once again violating the copyrights of foreign composers by using their copyrighted works for their purposes without appropriate permission.
Use the territory of occupied Crimea as a springboard for attacks on Ukraine
▶ According to the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russian occupants carried out a series of massive attacks on the territory of Ukraine, mainly in the southern part, including two X-59 aircraft missiles and 93 Shahed UAVs, including from the occupied peninsula.
Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion and spread its military violence throughout Ukraine, Russians have been using occupied Crimea as a military base for spreading aggression in various forms. From the peninsula, the occupiers continue to strike at the territory of Ukraine, including civilian infrastructure.
Resistance movement of Ukrainian citizens in occupied Crimea
▶ Russia has already prosecuted 913 people in occupied Crimea for expressing solidarity with Ukraine. People receive administrative penalties in the form of illegal fines and arrests.
▶ A resident of occupied Sevastopol was listening to the Ukrainian song “Chervona Kalyna” (Red Viburnum) at home with the windows open. Russian security forces detained the man for allegedly “propagandizing and publicly demonstrating Nazi paraphernalia,” as the occupiers label anything Ukrainian. The man also faces administrative arrest for up to 15 days.
▶ A resident of the village of Vyshneve, Bilohirsk region, supported Ukraine and was waiting for Crimea to be de-occupied. The occupation court illegally sent the man to a temporary detention center and fined him 50,000 rubles.
▶ A resident of the Simferopol region used a cover for documents with Ukraine’s coat of arms. Russian security forces detained the man, forced him to apologize on camera, and burned the cover with Ukrainian symbols.
▶ Activists of the Yellow Ribbon movement continue to resist the occupiers in Crimea. This week, representatives of the movement distributed patriotic leaflets in Simferopol, Yevpatoriia, and Yalta as a reminder that Crimea is Ukraine and the residents of the occupied peninsula are waiting for de-occupation.
▶ The activists of the Crimean Combat Seagulls continue to expose the personal data of collaborators and Russian war criminals in occupied Crimea.
▶ The Zla Mavka resistance movement continues to publish its diaries and distribute the movement’s symbols and a weekly newspaper revealing the occupiers’ crimes. In addition, the activists disseminated banknotes in occupied Kerch with a message that Russian occupiers have no place in Ukrainian Crimea.
▶ The ATESH resistance movement activists have documented the arrival of Russian military equipment at the railway station in the occupied city of Yevpatoriia. According to the activists, the newly arrived equipment is older than the previous equipment. Additionally, the activists have reported that the occupying forces are relocating their equipment from the western part of the occupied peninsula closer to the Kerch Bridge. This is due to the shortage of enemy air defense, so the occupiers can no longer cover all areas of Crimea.
A sharp increase in solidarity and resistance actions of the residents of occupied Crimea against the Russian occupiers marked the full-scale invasion. Residents of the occupied territories unite in resistance movements, such as the mentioned Yellow Ribbon movement, 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.”
We urge the international community not to ignore Russian crimes against Ukrainian citizens in occupied Crimea and to spread information about human rights violations in the occupation.