29 July 2026
Weekly update on the situation in occupied Crimea on July 29 , 2026
Main News of the Week
▶ On the night of July 25–26, 2026, the Unmanned Systems Department of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (HUR) tracked down a Russian S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile system in the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea and struck its components.
▶ Political prisoner Iryna Danylovych, who suffers from a severe ear condition, is subjected to 12 hours of daily torture by loud noise. Despite her intense pain, the prison turns on the television at maximum volume every day from 6:00 a.m. until evening.
▶ On the night of July 24, 2026, the Ukrainian Defense Forces struck a sorting center and warehouse belonging to the Russian marketplace Wildberries in occupied Simferopol.
Crimes Committed by the Russian Federation
▶ As of July 29, 2026, 316 people in occupied Crimea are subject to a policy of judicial persecution, including 169 Crimean Tatars and 1 Karaite.
▶ The so-called Crimean Prosecutor’s Office reported that a 35-year-old resident of the Simferopol district was sentenced to 1.5 years in a penal colony-settlement for allegedly inciting violence on social media. He was also banned from administering websites for two years.
▶ In the temporarily occupied Crimea, a public utilities worker was sentenced to 15 days of administrative detention for making political statements. The utility worker placed old Russian flags on the ground, which outraged a pro-Russian passerby. In response, he joked that the government had changed, Crimea had been returned to Ukraine, and so the flags were being replaced.
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 1009 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 1 Iskander-M missile, 13 X-59/69 guided air-to-ground missiles, 3 Onyx anti-ship missiles at Ukraine from Crimea and the Black Sea.
▶ In the temporarily occupied city of Sevastopol, on the eve of the Russian Federation’s Navy Day, the Russians organized a series of “patriotic” gatherings for young people featuring veterans of the so-called special military operation.
The resistance movement of Ukrainian citizens in occupied Crimea
▶ In the temporarily occupied city of Simferopol, a 25-year-old man faces up to seven years in prison for allegedly justifying the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall. Russian security forces also accuse him of posting comments supporting the Ukrainian Defense Forces’ strikes on Russian oil depots.
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.