18 June 2024
WEEKLY UPDATE ON THE SITUATION IN OCCUPIED CRIMEA ON JUNE 18, 2024
Main News of the Week:
▶ On the night of June 10, the Defense Forces of Ukraine successfully attacked the occupiers’ S-400 anti-aircraft missile division near Dzhankoi, as well as two enemy S-300 anti-aircraft missile divisions near Chornomorske and Yevpatoriia. Subsequently, further detonations of munitions were recorded in all three areas where Russian anti-aircraft missile divisions were deployed.
Crimes Committed by the Russian Federation in Occupied Crimea
▶ As of June 2024, Russia has illegally imprisoned 218 people in occupied Crimea on ethnic, religious, and political grounds, 133 of whom are Crimean Tatars.
▶ There were 847 cases of submitting materials under the article “Discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”, where the invaders believed that discrediting is any manifestation of non-support for the occupation regime. In 755 of these cases, a decision was made to impose an administrative penalty in the form of a fine or to combine the case with another case under another article and make a cumulative decision. In 10 cases the consideration of the material is in progress.
▶ The occupation “court” in Crimea has sentenced two Ukrainian border guards from Azovstal, Ivan Tereshchenko, and Vasyl Dmytruk, to 17 years in prison for detaining an illegal Crimean fishing vessel, Nord, flying the Russian flag while on duty in 2018. In 2018, they served on a vessel of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine: Ivan Tereshchenko was the motorist and Vasyl Dmytruk was the captain of the ship. In 2022, they confronted superior enemy forces in the besieged Mariupol as part of the 12th Azov Special Forces Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine. Both soldiers were taken prisoner by Russia. After being transferred to Crimea, the soldiers were convicted by the occupiers for politically motivated reasons. According to the illegal verdict, the border guards must serve three years in prison and the rest of the term in a maximum security colony.
▶ The occupiers sentenced a 44-year-old resident of Yalta to five years in prison for allegedly communicating by messenger with representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine, where the man allegedly expressed a desire to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Earlier, an accomplice of the unlawfully accused, also a resident of Yalta, was sentenced to six years in prison and fined 500 thousand rubles. They allegedly passed information about the Russian military in Crimea to the Security Service of Ukraine and expressed their readiness to commit acts of sabotage against Russian military facilities in occupied Crimea.
▶ The occupiers have extended the term of illegal detention for activists from the so-called “fifth Bakhchysarai group” in the case of “Crimean Muslims”. Seidamet Mustafaiev, Remzi Nimetulaiev, Abdulmedzhyt Seitumerov, Ametkhan Umerov, Ruslan Asanov, and Eldar Yakubov will stay in the pre-trial detention center until November 24 this year. Activists have been resisting the persecution and repression of Crimean Muslim Tatars on the peninsula for many years. In August 2023, Russian security forces raided the homes of six members of the movement, illegally detained and imprisoned them.
▶ Farkhod Bazarov, illegally sentenced to 15 years in prison in the “case of Crimean Muslims”, was offered by the occupiers to participate in the war against Ukraine as part of the Russian army, but he refused. Farkhod Bazarov was illegally detained by the occupiers in March 2019 in Crimea during the mass detentions of Crimean Tatars and was illegally sentenced for ethnic and religious reasons. Now Bazarov is waiting for an illegal transfer to the prison in Balashov, Saratov region of the Russian Federation.
The Use of the Territory of Occupied Crimea as a Military Base and a Springboard for Attacks on Ukraine
▶ Activists of the ATESH resistance movement have found an occupiers’ radio relay station in Crimea in the Perekop region. Radio relay stations provide radio communication through a chain of transmitting and receiving radio stations located within the line of sight of antennas. The occupiers used such relay stations to communicate between command posts and units as a radio backup in places where cable communication lines were damaged or under repair.
▶ In occupied Sevastopol, “Young Sevastopolians”, a new allegedly “patriotic movement” for kindergarten children has been created. The movement aims to expand the age range of “Yunarmiia” (“Young Army”, a Russian military movement for children), a show in which small children have to take the “patriotic oath”, after which members of the “Young Army”, servicemen of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and other militarized organizations of the occupiers tie blue ties on them.
▶ The Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Ukraine reported that Russian troops had transferred new elements of S-500 Prometheus anti-ballistic missile systems to occupied Crimea. In this way, the invaders reinforce air and missile defense systems to protect critical facilities in Crimea and to logistically link the peninsula to the Russian mainland.
▶ The Russian occupation forces continue to use the illegally constructed “Crimean Bridge” to transfer personnel, fuel, and some other military supplies for further attacks on mainland Ukraine. However, counter-attacks on Russian military and logistical facilities have forced Russian troops to change their deployment and transportation patterns.
Resistance Movement of Ukrainian Citizens in Occupied Crimea
▶ Russia persecutes at least 802 people in occupied Crimea for expressing solidarity with Ukraine. The occupation administration tries to highlight the cases when it punishes people for posts on social media. In this way, the occupiers try to intimidate the local population.
▶ In occupied Yevpatoriia, a woman publicly criticized the Russian military servicemen at a city bus stop, calling them occupiers and urging Russians not to go to occupied Crimea but to stay in Russia. The woman was detained and forced to apologize on camera, and the materials were sent to the “court”.
▶ Activists of the Yellow Ribbon movement continue to resist the occupiers in Crimea, destroying copies of propaganda materials and distributing patriotic symbols in occupied cities on the peninsula, particularly in Simferopol, Sevastopol, and Yalta. In addition, Yellow Ribbon movement activists report that in occupied Simferopol, the occupiers no longer drive convoys of military equipment in crowded places due to the large number of residents who transmit data on enemy activity to the Defense Forces of Ukraine. Activists of the Yellow Ribbon movement also held a bold action, burning 100 newspapers and 20 Russian flags in the occupied cities, including Simferopol.
▶ Activists of the Crimean Combat Seagulls movement continue to expose the personal data of collaborators and Russian war criminals in occupied Crimea.
▶ The Zla Mavka resistance movement continues to publish its diaries and a weekly newspaper that reveals the occupiers’ crimes. The activists also distributed updated banknotes in occupied Simferopol with the reminder that “Crimea is not Russia.”
The Mission continues to receive inquiries from Ukrainian citizens who want to leave Crimea because they cannot tolerate the occupation and total propaganda. We remind you of our instructions on how to leave temporarily occupied Crimea: https://cutt.ly/FwtiajlS
We thank the aware Ukrainian citizens in occupied Crimea for their prompt reports on the situation on the Crimean Peninsula, in particular on the socio-economic situation, the positions of Russian troops, the resistance movements to the occupation, etc. For more information, please send an e-mail to the press service of the Mission: [email protected]
Glory to Ukraine!