04 February 2025
WEEKLY UPDATE ON THE SITUATION IN OCCUPIED CRIMEA ON FEBRUARY 4, 2025
Main news of the week
▶ The health condition of Crimean political prisoner Tofik Abdulhaziiev, who suffers from tuberculosis, has sharply deteriorated in unlawful Russian detention. He has persistent fever, severe coughing, and shortness of breath, yet he is not receiving adequate medical treatment.
Crimes committed by the Russian Federation
▶ As of February 2025, Russia has illegally imprisoned 218 people in occupied Crimea on ethnic, religious, and political grounds, including 132 Crimean Tatars.
▶ A 37-year-old resident of occupied Feodosiia has been unlawfully sentenced by Russian occupiers to 2.5 years in prison for anti-Russian statements made on social media. The occupiers continue to persecute residents of occupied Crimea for even the slightest act of resistance or criticism of the Russian occupation regime.
▶ Russian occupiers are persecuting a resident of occupied Yalta for donating to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The invaders have baselessly accused the woman of so-called “high treason,” and she faces a life sentence.
▶ Rustem Seitkhalilov, unlawfully sentenced by a Russian “court” to 14 years of imprisonment as part of the so-called “Crimean Muslims case,” was able to meet his mother for the first time in six years of incarceration. His health has significantly deteriorated in Russian detention. Rustem suffers from severe headaches, and during his long-awaited visit with his mother, he endured persistent head pain throughout the day.
▶ Russian occupation security forces in Crimea abducted and have been unlawfully detaining 28-year-old Lera Dzhemilova, a resident of Dzhankoi district, for over eight months. In May 2024, following an unlawful search, Dzhemilova was taken to a so-called court, where she was sentenced to 15 days of administrative arrest for allegedly refusing a drug test. After serving her sentence in a detention center, her relatives were informed that she would be transferred to FSB custody. Since then, her whereabouts and legal status remain unknown. The unlawful detention, prolonged captivity without external contact, concealment of information about her location, and denial of access to legal counsel bear signs of enforced disappearance. Lera Dzhemilova’s case may fall under the definition of war crimes, including “intentional attacks on civilians” and “unlawful deprivation of liberty.”
The use of occupied Crimea as a springboard for attacks on Ukraine and the militarization of the peninsula
▶ ATESH resistance movement activists continue tracking the logistics of Russian occupiers in Crimea. They are documenting the movement of fuel and petroleum products (POL) across the peninsula. The occupiers are attempting to establish stable supply chains for their forces while simultaneously avoiding large fuel stockpiles at depots, as these are highly vulnerable to Ukrainian drone strikes. Based on the routes of fuel deliveries from Russia, it appears that the geography of supply chains has shifted due to the increasing frequency of successful Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries in border and rear regions. As a result, more fuel trains are arriving in Crimea from distant regions, making transportation more complex and costly. This inevitably drives up fuel prices at regular gas stations, causing periodic fuel shortages for local residents on the occupied peninsula.
▶ According to the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russian occupiers launched a series of attacks across Ukraine over the past week. These included 282 Shahed-type attack drones and unidentified UAVs, 7 Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles, 7 Iskander-K cruise missiles, and 2 Kh-31P air-to-ground guided missiles—many of which were launched from occupied Crimea and the Black Sea region. As a result of these Russian missile and drone strikes, civilian infrastructure and critical facilities were damaged in multiple Ukrainian areas. The ballistic missile attack on the historic center of Odesa serves as yet another act of barbarism and terrorism by Russian occupiers.
Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion and spread its armed 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 1203 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 resident of the village of Akymivka in the Bilohirsk district of occupied Crimea posted images featuring Ukrainian national symbols and Ukrainian songs on social media. The Russian occupiers accused her of allegedly “discrediting the Russian army” and “insulting the occupation regime.” The so-called “court” illegally imposed two administrative fines of 40,000 rubles each as punishment.
▶ A 55-year-old resident of occupied Crimea made derogatory remarks about Vladimir Putin and criticized the Russian occupying army during a conversation in a chat roulette. As a result, the occupation “court” unlawfully fined him 95,000 rubles and sentenced him to 10 days of administrative arrest, citing alleged “discrediting the Russian Armed Forces,” “petty hooliganism,” and “disobedience to occupation security forces.”
▶ Activists of the Yellow Ribbon movement carried out new resistance actions in occupied Crimea. They spread patriotic graffiti, posters, stickers, and ribbons in key locations, including the central streets of Simferopol, parks, and squares of Sevastopol, the entrance to the village of Aikavan, Salhirka Park in Simferopol, the entrance to Bakhchysarai, and the outskirts of Feodosiia.
▶ Activists of the Crimean Combat Seagulls movement continue to expose personal data of Russian war criminals and collaborators, as well as collect intelligence on the locations of Russian military facilities in occupied Crimea.
▶ The resistance movement Zla Mavka continues to maintain its resistance diaries, documenting the realities of life under occupation.
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”.
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.