Weekly update about the situation in occupied Crimea (April 23-29, 2024)
Main news of the week
▶️ April 27 marks the birthday of Nariman Dzhelial, the First Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, who was illegally imprisoned by Russia for 17 years for participating in the Inaugural Summit of the Crimea Platform in 2021.
▶ ️ According to his wife, the health of political prisoner Amet Suleimanov is deteriorating while he is in a Russian prison located in Vladimir. Suleimanov is a Crimean Tatar activist and journalist of Crimean Solidarity who was detained by the occupiers in March 2020. He was later accused of alleged “terrorism” and sentenced to 12 years in prison. The man is suffering from arterial and mitral heart failure.
Crimes committed by the Russian Federation
▶️ As of April 29, 2024, 218 people were illegally imprisoned by Russia in occupied Crimea for ethnic, religious and political reasons, including 133 Crimean Tatars.
▶️ According to the latest update as of April 29, there have been 780 cases reported in the so-called “courts” situated in the temporarily occupied Crimea, which were drawn up under Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. Out of these cases, decisions were made to impose an administrative penalty in the form of a fine or to add the case to another under a different article and make a cumulative decision in 680 cases. In 24 cases, the consideration of materials is still ongoing.
▶ ️ Activist and citizen journalist Ruslan Suleimanov, illegally sentenced by the Russian occupiers to 14 years in prison, was illegally transferred from Novocherkassk, Russia, to a prison in Verkhnouralsk, Chelyabinsk region of the Russian Federation. According to Suleimanov, the entire process of illegal transfer lasted 26 days, during which he suffered from acute respiratory infections with a high temperature.
▶ ️ Occupation “court” illegally sentenced 31-year-old member of Jehovah’s Witnesses Maksym Zinchenko from occupied Feodosiia to two years of forced labor for participating in worship. He was detained in late May last year. The occupiers falsely accuse the man of allegedly “organizing meetings with preaching extremist ideas”.
After the occupation of Crimea in 2014, Russia continued its traditional imperial policy of persecution and abuse of local residents, including the indigenous people, the Crimean Tatars. The occupation administration systematically persecutes activists, journalists and people who oppose Russia’s illegal occupation of Crimea.
Illegal mobilization and violations of the Geneva Conventions on the laws and customs of war
▶️ Activist movements report that doctors and medical staff in civilian hospitals across the peninsula are being forced to sign a contract with the Russian army. They are being offered a lot of money, but there are no takers. People are categorically against it. In addition, activists report a shortage of medical personnel, transport, and equipment in Crimea, which has a significant impact on the standard of living of residents.
The Russian occupiers, contrary to international humanitarian law, laws, and customs of war, are illegally forcibly mobilizing residents of the occupied Crimea to destroy the disloyal population in the occupation by illegally mobilizing them and later using them as “cannon fodder” at the front.
Use of the territory of the occupied Crimea as a springboard for attacks on Ukraine
▶ ️ Activist movements report that the occupiers have intensified the construction of fortifications in occupied Crimea after the news of increasing international assistance to Ukraine. The activists also recorded the movement of Russian military vehicles in occupied Armiansk towards Simferopol.
▶ ️ On April 23, 24, 26, and 27, the occupiers conducted military training of anti-submarine warfare units with firing from small arms of the Russian Navy in the area of the Northern and Southern breakwaters, as well as Striletska Bay and Cape Khersones. Also on April 24, training shootings were held in occupied Armiansk.
Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion and spread its aggression throughout Ukraine, the occupied Crimea has been used by Russia as a military base to spread violence in various forms. From the peninsula, the occupiers continue to strike at the territory of Ukraine, including civilian infrastructure.
The resistance movement of Ukrainian citizens in the occupied Crimea
▶️ Russia is currently prosecuting 780 people in the occupied Crimea for standing in solidarity with Ukraine. People receive administrative penalties in the form of illegal fines and arrests.
▶ ️ In occupied Crimea, a man condemned the war on social media, labeled the Russian occupation forces as fascist and supported Ukraine. The occupiers detained him for this, and the materials of the “case” were sent to the occupation “court”. In addition, the man was forced to apologize on camera.
▶️ A resident of occupied Feodosiia spoke out against the war on social media, condemning Russia and Putin. The so-called “Center E ” detained the man for this, sent the materials to the “court” and forced him to apologize on camera.
▶️ A resident of the occupied Sevastopol, who in August 2022 stated on her social media that: “she doesn’t need Russian Crimea”, “I lived a wonderful life in Ukraine”, “I didn’t go to the referendum to vote and didn’t understand the people who were leaving” and declared her desire to return to Ukraine, was detained by the Russian occupiers.
▶️ A resident of the temporarily occupied Crimea left comments criticizing the occupiers in Ukrainian telegram channels, waiting for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. For this, the occupiers detained her and sent the materials to the “court”. The woman was forced to apologize on camera.
▶️ A resident of occupied Simferopol mocked the occupiers’ army on social media, and spoke negatively about Russia and Putin, for which he was detained by the occupiers. The materials of the “case” were sent to the occupation “court”, and the man will face a criminal trial.
▶️ A resident of Yalta, who criticized Russia and condemned the war in his communication at work, was detained, the materials were sent to the “court”, and the man was forced to apologize on camera.
▶ ️ Activists of the Yellow Ribbon movement continue to resist the occupiers in Crimea, destroying copies of propaganda materials and distributing patriotic symbols in the occupied cities on the peninsula. For example, patriotic posters and yellow ribbons have reappeared in Simferopol, Yalta, Alushta, Sevastopol, Yevpatoriia, and other cities of the occupied peninsula.
▶️ Activists of the Crimean Combat Seagulls continue to expose the personal data of collaborators and Russian war criminals in the occupied Crimea.
▶️ The Zla Mavka resistance movement continues to write its diaries and distribute a weekly newspaper that reveals the crimes of the occupiers.
▶ ️ Activists of the ATESH movement conduct massive reconnaissance operations to record the locations of oil depots and other significant military facilities of the occupiers in Sevastopol and Kerch. ATESH activists are also creating a cyber unit to counter Russian propaganda online, attack the enemy’s information infrastructure, and collect information about the occupiers, traitors, and collaborators. The activists also posted anti-war and pro-Ukrainian leaflets in occupied Simferopol.
A sharp increase in solidarity and resistance actions of the residents of the occupied Crimea against the Russian occupiers marked the full-scale invasion. After February 24, 2022, the occupiers actively started to prosecute and bring to administrative responsibility Ukrainian citizens under the so-called “discrediting the Russian army” article to suppress the resistance movement of the residents of the temporarily occupied Crimea.
