03 July 2024

The Times article about a russian Telegram channel that intimidates pro-Ukrainian residents of Crimea

British The Times paper has published an article by Matthew Campbell Digital vigilantes hunt Ukrainian patriots in Crimea — and at the Euros, which tells us about the Russian Telegram channel “Crimean Smersh” that is used by the russian occupiers and their collaborators in Crimea to track down, humiliate, intimidate and punish the pro-Ukrainian residents of the Crimea.

“Today, the peninsula is a simmering hotbed of fear and suspicion, and a terrifying example of what Ukrainians can expect if Russians seize other parts of their country.”

The author describes two cases of Ukrainian patriots from the Crimea, who’ve been publicized at the Crimean Smersh Telegram channel: one of them – brothers from Yevpatoria, who had waved a Ukrainian flag and a Crimean Tatar flag at the football match in Stuttgart and later on got intimidations on the channel; the other one – a plastic surgeon from the city of Alushta, who had wanted to pay with Ukrainian hryvnia at the local supermarket and eventually was beaten, detained for 15 days and had to pay a fine.

“Crimean Smersh has also named, shamed and incriminated people for posting “offensive” pictures of Putin online, “liking” Ukrainian singers and poets on social media, painting walls — or their fingernails — in Ukraine’s colours of yellow or blue, or pinning yellow ribbons on trees, the latter a form of dissent common across all Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine. It often accuses citizens of “discrediting the Russian army”, a catch-all criminal charge that can cover most pro-Ukrainian social media content and results in a 15-day prison sentence and fine.”

“Ruling on a longstanding complaint from Ukraine, on Tuesday the European Court of Human Rights painted a grim picture of life in Crimea, accusing Russia of large-scale and systematic violations of human rights, forced disappearances, torture, including electrocution and mock executions, as well as the transfer of 12,500 Ukrainian prisoners to distant, ice-bound penal colonies where it was hard for their families to reach them.”

“Crimean Tatars, a long-persecuted Muslim minority — to which the football-fan brothers belong — have borne the brunt of the oppression: between 15,000 and 30,000 fled the region in the years after 2014, and many more in the wake of what Ukrainians refer to as the “full-scale” invasion eight years later.”

Permanent Representative Tamila Tasheva is also quoted in the article regarding the russification of the peninsula, the pro-Ukrainian resistance and her vision of the liberated Crimea.

“We have a dream as Tatar people to live in our motherland of Crimea, at peace with the Ukrainian state, which recognises us as a Ukrainian indigenous people.”

“More and more of our people are starting to resist. With the help of our western allies, we will win.”