04 August 2026
Weekly update on the situation in occupied Crimea on August 4, 2026
Main News of the Week
▶ On the night of 30 July, operators of the Unmanned Systems Department of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (HUR) struck a Project 1100M Sargan high-speed patrol boat in Kerch and a Forpost UAV ground control station in Yevpatoriia.
▶ Explosions were reported across temporarily occupied Crimea during the nights of 1–3 August. Satellite imagery detected fires at the positions of the 475th Electronic Warfare Center of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet at Cape Fiolent, air defense positions near Balaklava, and on the territory of the 1630th Separate Railway Battalion and a nearby military unit in Kerch.
▶ Kseniia Svitlyshyna, an activist of the Yellow Ribbon resistance movement, was transferred from Detention Center No. 1 in Simferopol. However, her current place of detention remains unknown. She is expected to be able to establish contact no earlier than in one month’s time.
▶ Human rights defender Lutfiye Zudiyeva reported two incidents of aggression against Crimean Tatar women in occupied Crimea. In Bakhchysarai, a local resident threatened a woman with children with a knife, while in the Kerch district, neighbors attempted to tear a muslim headscarf off a Crimean Tatar woman.
Crimes Committed by the Russian Federation
▶ As of 4 August 2026, 316 people in occupied Crimea are subjected to politically motivated criminal prosecution, including 169 Crimean Tatars and 1 Karaim.
▶ The so-called Sevastopol City Court sentenced 66-year-old Oleksandr Hlukhoiedov to 18 years’ imprisonment on charges of “high treason” and allegedly illegal acquiring and possessing an explosive device.
▶ The detention conditions of blind Crimean political prisoner Oleksandr Sizikov and his cellmates have deteriorated in the correctional colony in Minusinsk. They were transferred to a cell without a radio or television and with a cramped toilet whose door does not fully close.
▶ A 35-year-old resident of temporarily occupied Crimea was sentenced to one and a half years’ imprisonment in a penal settlement colony for social media posts that Russian investigators classified as alleged “calls for violence on ethnic grounds”.
▶ 62-year-old political prisoner Larysa Haidai, who had been held in complete isolation for more than two years, has lost a significant amount of weight and become severely weakened in Detention Center No. 1 in Simferopol. According to her relatives, she has lost nearly 15 kilograms, her hair has turned completely gray, and she appears exhausted. They warn that her continued detention poses a critical threat to her health.
The use of occupied Crimea as a springboard for attacks on Ukraine and the militarization of the peninsula
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 Ukrainian Air Force reported that during the past week, the occupiers carried out another series of massive combined attacks on Ukrainian territory. In particular, they launched over 789 strike UAVs of the Shahed, Gerbera, and Italmas types, as well as Parody decoy drones, from various directions, including from the territory of occupied Crimea and the Black Sea. The enemy also launched 2 X-59/69 guided air-to-ground missiles, 2 3M22 Zircon/P-800 Oniks anti-ship missiles at Ukraine from Crimea and the Black Sea.
▶ On 29 July, Russian authorities organized a military-patriotic game at a school in temporarily occupied Sevastopol, involving parents and children aged 11 to 17. Participants completed speed and agility challenges, practiced elements of military tactical training, and received first aid instruction. Russia continues to militarize the civilian population.
The resistance movement of Ukrainian citizens in occupied Crimea
▶ Agents of the Atesh resistance movement identified concealed fuel storage tanks in an industrial zone of Simferopol. The site may be connected to the operation of two oil depots in the area and used to supply fuel to Russian occupation structures. The collected intelligence has been passed on to the Ukrainian Defence Forces.
The full-scale invasion was marked by a sharp increase in acts of solidarity and resistance by residents of occupied Crimea against the Russian occupiers. Residents of the occupied territories are uniting in resistance movements such as “Yellow Ribbon”, “Zla Mavka”, and “ATESH”, or acting individually.
To suppress the resistance movement of local residents in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea after February 24, 2022, the occupation administration actively began to persecute and bring Ukrainian citizens to administrative liability under the article on the so-called discreditation of the Russian army.
De-occupation of Crimea is an integral part of ending the war and restoring peace. Ukrainians are doing everything possible to stop the aggressor and protect the entire world from Russia’s criminal actions. Since this is not a local or regional problem, Russia’s aggression poses a threat to the entire world and the international order.