04 June 2024
WEEKLY UPDATE ON THE SITUATION IN OCCUPIED CRIMEA ON JUNE 4, 2024
Main news of the week
▶ The Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine neutralized two Russian high-speed transport amphibious boats KS-701 Tunets in the occupied Crimea during a mission on the night of May 30. The enemy Tunets boats were destroyed using Ukrainian Magura V5 strike marine drones.
Crimes committed by the Russian Federation in occupied Crimea
▶ As of May 2024, Russia has illegally imprisoned 218 people in occupied Crimea on ethnic, religious, and political grounds, including 133 Crimean Tatars.
▶ Russian security forces sent illegally detained religious figures from occupied Dzhankoi Enver Khalillaiev, Arsen Kashka, as well as the imam of the mosque in the village of Lobanove Vakhid Mustafaiev, for a forced forensic psychiatric examination in a Simferopol hospital. The lawyer of the detained Ukrainian citizens emphasized that such actions of the occupiers were nothing more than “a way to put pressure on the detainees through politically motivated criminal cases”.
▶ Illegally sentenced by the occupiers to 13 years in prison, activist Yashar Muiedinov said that Russian prison staff used force and psychological pressure against him. Yashar Muiedinov also added that the cell where he is being held is very damp. Because of this, his health has deteriorated significantly.
▶ Crimean activist and citizen journalist Ruslan Suleimanov, who was unlawfully sentenced to 14 years in prison by a Russian court in the “Crimean Muslims case”, has been registered in a situational crime prevention list in a Russian prison. The list involves increased monitoring of the prisoner’s behavior and may be the basis for transferring him to more severe conditions of detention. Such convicts are escorted with enhanced security and are deprived of the chance for early release and mitigation of the conditions of their sentence. Ruslan Suleimanov was put on the situational crime prevention list because of his alleged “adherence to extremist ideology, a tendency to escape and attack”. In addition, he received two reprimands for sitting on the bed. The widespread practice in Russian prisons of banning prisoners from sitting and lying on their beds in their free time is a violation of human rights.
Using the territory of occupied Crimea as a military base and a springboard for attacks on Ukraine
In the temporarily occupied Crimea, the occupiers’ military trucks were spotted at a freight station in Yevpatoriia. The trucks were transporting construction materials that the occupiers used to build fortifications on the western coast of Crimea. The use of civilian infrastructure for military purposes has become a standard tactic of the occupiers.
Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion and spread its military 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 strike at the territory of Ukraine, including civilian infrastructure.
The resistance movement of Ukrainian citizens in occupied Crimea
▶ Russia is persecuting at least 802 people in the occupied Crimea for expressing solidarity with Ukraine. People receive administrative penalties in the form of illegal fines and arrests.
▶ In Sevastopol, a man from an anonymous page on a social network spoke negatively about the Russian military. The occupiers accuse the man of allegedly “discrediting” the Russian army, and he faces a fine of 30 to 50 thousand rubles.
▶ Russian security forces detained four Crimean residents who were allegedly collecting and transmitting to the Ukrainian side information about the positions and movements of the Russian military, the location of air defense and fuel and energy facilities, and data on the organization of the security and defense of the so-called “Kerch Bridge”. Criminal cases were fabricated against the man.
▶ A resident of the occupied Sevastopol supported the Ukrainian Armed Forces on social media, condemned the Russian occupation of Crimea, and spoke out against the Russian occupation forces. The woman was detained by Russian security forces, forced to apologize on camera, and her materials were sent to the occupation “court”.
▶ 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, including Yevpatoriia, Simferopol, Sevastopol, Yalta, and Bakhchysarai.
▶ 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 keep its diaries and distribute a weekly newspaper that reveals the crimes of the occupiers. This week, the activists distributed notes with quotes from Taras Shevchenko’s poems near the Yevpatoriia city cultural center.
Glory to Ukraine!