Over 5,000 human rights violations documented in nine years of Russian occupation of Crimea

Since the start of the Russian occupation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, activists recorded many human rights violations, most of which concerned the Crimean Tatars.

During the conference, "Crimea is global. Understanding Ukraine through the South," Ukrainian Institute Deputy Director Alim Aliiev announced that over the past 9.5 years, more than 5,000 human rights violations have been registered in Crimea, Ukrinform reports.

"Russia is trying to focus attention on the Crimean Tatars, portraying them as potential terrorists and criminals," Aliyev said, adding that Crimea "has turned into Russia's colonization model."

During the occupation, about 70,000 people left Crimea, and over 700,000 people came there from Russia. Among the occupiers are both military and civilians.

"This is our joint war. In this war, many Crimean Tatars, Ukrainians, and representatives of other nationalities are now in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the front lines, the activist said. "This is a war not only for our territory, for our land, but also our identity, for our dignity, and our future."

The most recent case of unlawful detention in occupied Crimea happened on Friday. Russian occupation authorities detained lawyer Oleksii Ladin, who defended Ukrainian prisoners and political prisoners in Russia.

Political prisoner from the occupied Crimean city of Simferopol, Asan Yanikov, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and Rustem Seythalilov was sentenced to 14 years in prison. They were later transferred from the Novocherkask pre-trial detention center to Russian prisons.

As Rubryka reports, on April 27, the "Letters to a Free Crimea" initiative was launched in Ukraine to write messages to illegally imprisoned Ukrainians who are kept on the occupied peninsula or deported to the Russian Federation.