05 May 2026
Weekly update on the situation in occupied Crimea on May 5, 2026
Main News of the Week
▶ President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacted the NSDC decision on applying new sanctions against Russians involved in the kidnapping and Russification of Ukrainian children, as well as against 23 vessels of the Russian shadow fleet.
▶ Later, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) served a notice of suspicion in absentia to the Russian invaders who were preparing boys in Crimea for the war against Ukraine. Specifically, suspicion was served on Aleksandr Dyachenko — the head of the occupation administration, the Union of Border Guards of Crimea, and the Varyag Maritime Training Center — as well as on two of his subordinates — Daria Gorokhova and Volodymyr Graf. The priority direction of the organizations headed by Dyachenko is training and combat instruction for youth leading to subsequent enlistment in special units of the Russian Navy.
▶ The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported hitting an MR-10 radar station, an air defense control point, and a Parol-4 ground radar interrogator at the Kacha airfield. Attacks were also carried out on an ammunition depot in the Pervomaiske area and the TES oil depot in Simferopol. Separately, this week, the Ukrainian Security and Defense forces struck the location of an Iskander operational-tactical missile system tactical group near Druzhne.
▶ The Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit a Sobol patrol boat and a Grachonok anti-saboteur boat.
▶ Russian archaeologist Aleksandr Butyagin announced the continuation of illegal excavations in Crimea. In December 2025, he was detained in Warsaw at Ukraine’s request for extradition on suspicion of illegal archaeological work on the peninsula, which the Polish court agreed to. However, on April 28, Poland handed over the archaeologist to Russia as part of a swap with Belarus.
▶ The Russian invaders are offering students from Russia jobs in Crimea, initiating internships and subsequent employment. Previously, the occupation administration reported a shortage of about 500 workers at shipbuilding enterprises, so these positions are planned to be filled by students. In total, from 2014 to 2025, the Russian Federation moved about one million of its citizens to Crimea. This is a pre-planned policy of replacing Ukrainians with Russians and one of the methods of colonization used first by the Russian Empire and then by the Soviet Union.
Crimes Committed by the Russian Federation
▶ As of April 23, 2026, 303 people in the territory of occupied Crimea are subject to the policy of political persecution, 164 of whom are Crimean Tatars and 1 is a Karaite.
▶ A Moscow court dismissed the appeal of human rights defender and journalist Lutfiye Zudiyeva regarding her inclusion in the Russian register of so-called foreign agents. Furthermore, her lawyer was not allowed to attend the hearing: when Zudiyeva’s representative arrived at the court at the appointed time, it was already over, and the previous decision remained unchanged. Lutfiye has been covering political persecution on the peninsula for almost 10 years and helping the families of political prisoners.
▶ The wife of political prisoner Alim Karimov, who visited him in Correctional Colony No. 6 in Omsk, Russia, says that communication with him remains difficult due to the censorship of letters. In March 2019, the man’s home was searched, and later a Russian court sentenced him to 13 years in prison. After Alim Karimov’s detention, his defense filed an appeal. However, the so-called court continued his detention, and all appeals remained unsatisfied. In September 2025, he was transferred from a prison in Krasnoyarsk to Omsk.
▶ Zarema Bariieva, manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, made public the story of Crimea resident Arseniy Dyachkin. Specifically, she stated that the occupation administration sentenced the man first to 6.5 years in prison in a case of the so-called illegal storage of explosive substances, and later increased the term to 16 years in prison for so-called state treason. Arseniy’s health condition is a cause for concern: before his arrest, he suffered a serious injury and requires constant medication.
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 Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that the Russian invaders carried out another series of massive combined attacks on the territory of Ukraine during the week. In particular, they launched over 1,900 strike UAVs of the Shahed, Gerbera, and Italmas types, as well as Parodiia decoy drones, including from the territory of occupied Crimea and the Black Sea.
The resistance movement of Ukrainian citizens in occupied Crimea
▶ Activists of the Yellow Ribbon movement recorded an increase in housing prices in Crimea and the Zaporizhzhia region. Activists note that the price increase is caused not by market development but by artificial factors: limited supply, demand from the Russian invaders and officials, and the lack of transparency in housing market transactions.
The full-scale invasion was marked by a sharp increase in acts of solidarity and resistance by the residents of occupied Crimea against the Russian invaders. Residents of the occupied territories unite in resistance movements, such as Yellow Ribbon, Zla Mavka, and ATESH, or act 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 discrediting 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.