Кримська платформа

11/06/2026

⚖ On June 11, the Mission’s team held a working meeting with Nicolas Ligneul, a doctor of law and Counsel at the International Criminal Court, admitted to plead and represent victims at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The meeting was attended by Denys Chystikov, Deputy Permanent Representative, Liudmyla Shevchuk, Deputy Head of the Department for the De-occupation and Reintegration of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Anatolii Chekhun, Deputy Head of the Legal Department, and Tetiana Nepomiashcha, Chief Consultant to the Crimea Platform Department.

📌 During the meeting, the parties discussed possible areas of cooperation for protecting the rights of victims of the Russian aggression in Ukraine. In this context, Denys Chystikov informed about the work of the Mission and the current situation in the temporarily occupied Crimea. He spoke about politically motivated persecution on the peninsula, numbers of political prisoners and victims, as well as initiatives to support them, including through the Mentorship program.

💭 According to Denys Chystikov, in 2022 Russia added articles for the so-called discrediting of the Russian Armed Forces to its criminal and administrative legislation, which has become an additional tool for repression. The parties paid particular attention to the problem of the militarization and indoctrination of Ukrainian children in the temporarily occupied territories.

⚖ In turn, Nicolas Ligneul outlined the key areas of his work, specifically discussing the filing of complaints with the International Criminal Court on behalf of victims of the Russian Federation’s armed aggression against Ukraine. To date, he has prepared and submitted approximately three thousand such applications. He also highlighted the possibility of representing the interests of residents of the temporarily occupied Crimean Peninsula at the ICC.

11/06/2026

🇺🇦🤝🇪🇺 11th EU–Ukraine Human Rights Dialogue held in Brussels

On 10 June 2026, the European Union and Ukraine held eleventh Human Rights Dialogue. As part of the Ukrainian delegation, Nelia Hrynyshyn, Head of the Crimea Platform Department, participated in the meeting.

📌 The parties strongly condemned Russia’s ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine and its blatant violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including arbitrary deprivation of life and detention, enforced disappearances, systematic torture and ill-treatment of civilians and prisoners of war, conflict-related sexual violence, illegal deportation and forcible transfers of civilians, including children.

📌 Participants deplored the intensification of systemic suppression of Ukrainian identity, as well as various forms of repression, forced conscription, religious persecution, indoctrination of children and youth and militarization and russification of the Ukrainian population living in the temporary occupied territories. Participants condemned also Russia’s intentions to organize a so-called “World children’s Conference” titled “Children for Peace” from 21stJune to 12th July 2026 in one of the temporary occupied territories of Ukraine, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, which is a vile attempt to whitewash the systemic violations of both international humanitarian and human rights law with regard to children.

💭 Nelia Hrynyshyn highlighted the human rights situation in occupied Crimea, drawing attention to pressure on women, religious persecution, restrictions on freedom of expression, and the effective control established by the occupying authorities over the information space of the peninsula.
She also informed participants about the militarization of education in Crimea, the indoctrination of children and youth, and Russia’s attempts to legitimize its occupation of Crimea through the involvement of foreign citizens.

During the Dialogue, the parties also discussed Ukraine’s efforts to develop comprehensive strategies and policies for the reintegration of de-occupied territories, including in the area of transitional justice.

The EU reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to continue supporting Ukraine across all human rights dimensions, advancing its alignment with EU and international standards, and mitigating the severe negative impacts of Russia’s ongoing war of aggression.

11/06/2026

🇺🇦 Today, we highlight the story of Ukrainian political prisoner Andrii Kuliievych from occupied Crimea, Ukraine.

📢 Born on April 22, 2000, Andriy is a Ukrainian citizen who lived in Sevastopol. He worked as a construction laborer before his arrest. In 2020, Andriy and three other activists distributed leaflets in public places calling for political change in Russia. Russian security services later accused them of preparing a public explosion and brought multiple terrorism-related charges against the group.

⚖️ Andriy was sentenced to 7.5 years in a penal colony on charges related to alleged terrorism, explosives, weapons distribution, and public advocacy. His case is part of a broader pattern of politically motivated prosecutions in occupied Crimea.

🔒 As of the end of 2025, Andriy remains imprisoned in Penal Institution No. 2 in Yeniseysk, Krasnoyarsk Krai, thousands of kilometers away from his home and loved ones.

❗ We call for the immediate release of Andriy Kuliievych. No one should be imprisoned for their political views, activism, or peaceful expression.

10/06/2026

🤝 We express our sincere gratitude to the Norwegian Helsinki Committee for its continued support of Ukrainian political prisoners.

Berit Lindeman, Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, is an advocacy mentor for Ukrainian political prisoner Ruslan Suleimanov. Mr. Suleimanov is a civic journalist and human rights defender who has been unlawfully sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment in a high-security penal colony on charges of allegedly organizing the activities of a terrorist organization within the framework of the so-called “Hizb ut-Tahrir case.”

🇺🇦 The World Cup is getting close, and we want to highlight our team of exceptional human rights heroes, who are all wrongfully imprisoned. First up is Ruslan Suleimanov from Crimea, Ukraine:

📣 An IT-specialist, physics teacher and a journalist, Ruslan was one of 25 people detained by Russian security services in March 2019, on bogus terrorism charges. In 2022 he was convicted to 14 years in prison in a trial widely recognized as politically motivated, unfair and unjust. Ruslan is today one of dozens other Crimean Tatar activist that Russian human rights organization Memorial counts as political prisoners

🌹 Ruslan is married and a father of three. In 2020 his three-year-old son Musa died under tragic circumstances, while Ruslan was in prison. He was not allowed to attend the funeral, nor was the family allowed to visit him.

❗️We demand that Ruslan is released immediately and reunited with his family!

09/06/2026

⚡Main News of the Week

🔥 On the night of June 4, Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces struck the RSBN-4N short-range navigation system in Saky near Yevpatoriia, as well as locomotives in Vladyslavivka in Feodosia district, and in Rozdolne.
🔥 Additionally, during the week, the Ukrainian military struck the Russian border patrol ship “Svitliak”. The ship may have been involved in guarding the Kerch Bridge in the Kerch Strait.
🔹 The National Resistance Center of Ukraine reported gradual deterioration of public essential services on the peninsula. Residents of Sevastopol are complaining en masse about overflowing trash bins, uncontrolled dumps, and unsanitary conditions in residential neighborhoods. In some parts of the city, trash has not been collected for weeks, and rats and other pests can be noticed near high-rise apartment buildings.

📌 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.
🔹 Political prisoners from the Dzhankoy district Emir Kurtnezirov, Abibulla Smedliaev, Rustem Mustafayev, Mirzali Tazhibaiev, and Bakhtiiar Ablaiev were transferred from the Pretrial Detention Center No. 1 in Rostov-on-Don to the Pretrial Detention Center No. 3 in Novocherkassk. According to Safiie, the wife of Emir Kurtnezirov, during the last court hearing, the judge explained the transfer as due to a “lack of space” in the Rostov-on-Don detention center.
🔹 The occupation “court” fined massage therapist Tamara Geria 30,000 rubles for a solo picket with a “No War” protest sign in one of Feodosiia’s parks.
🔹 The wife of political prisoner Seiran Saliev, Mumine, reported that upon his arrival at the Penal Colony No. 1 in the Tula region, his Quran was confiscated. The occupiers illegally detained Seiran Saliev in 2017 following mass searches by Russian security forces in the homes of Crimean Tatars. He was subsequently sentenced to 15 years in prison on trumped-up charges.
🔹 The sister of Crimean political prisoner Bohdan Ziza, Oleksandra Barkova, reported that he has been transferred to Yekaterinburg. He is currently being held at the Pretrial Detention Center No. 1, but his final place of detention remains unknown. In a letter to his family, the political prisoner wrote that he does not know the final destination of his transfer and views this as yet another ordeal. He also mentioned that being on the road, for the first time in a long while, he saw nature outside the prison walls and spent time outdoors without bars overhead, which served as a source of comfort for him after more than two years of isolation.
🔹 Daria, the daughter of the missing Serhii Hrishchenkov, reported that after more than a year of complete isolation and a lack of any information about the whereabouts of the Crimean IT specialist, it became known that he is alive. On May 6, 2025, FSB officers broke into the Hrishchenkov family’s apartment in Sevastopol, conducted a search, and took the man away to an unknown location. His wife was taken in for questioning but later released. For a year, his relatives had no official information about his whereabouts or legal status, whereas appeals to Russian authorities yielded no results. Currently, it is known only that a trial has begun. However, the specific charges against Serhii Hrishchenkov and the court where the case is being heard have not yet been disclosed.

📌 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 1500 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 occupiers continue to militarize young people. A second “patriotic forum-exhibition” dedicated to UAV technology was held in Kerch. Students attended workshops on tactical medicine, classes on assembling, maintaining, and repairing drones, as well as training on UAV simulators. The forum also featured demonstrations of military gear and various types of Russian drones, with the highlight being a “drone race” competition among students who had undergone training as part of the “UAV Operator Talent Pool of the Republic of Crimea” project. In total, over 500 participants took part in the event, including students from educational institutions in Kerch, Feodosiia, and Primorske.

📌 The resistance movement of Ukrainian citizens in occupied Crimea

🔹 Activists of the “Yellow Ribbon” report that the occupiers are encroaching on Crimea’s historical heritage. In Sevastopol, during preparatory work for the construction of a new residential complex in the Striletska Bay area, archaeologists discovered part of the Chora of Chersonesos - an ancient Greek settlement. Despite this, the occupiers plan to build two high-rise buildings on the site of the historical object.
🔹 The occupiers will put a resident of Feodosiia on trial on charges of “high treason”. They accuse him of speaking out against the so-called special military operation, as well as allegedly gathering information about movements of a military helicopter in September 2024, photographing it, and transmitting the data via a messenger to a chatbot, which is claimed to be used by the Security Service of Ukraine.
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.

09/06/2026

🤝 On June 8, Permanent Representative Olha Kuryshko met with experts of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism Herve Eric Ascensio, Elina Steinerte and Stefan Wolff. Nelia Hrynyshyn, Head of the Crimea Platform Department, also attended the meeting.

📌 The experts visited the Mission as they’re preparing the Report in relation to the militarization and indoctrination of Ukrainian children by the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied territories. This marks the sixth use of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism by participating States in relation to Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, the OSCE Moscow Mechanism 2026 builds on the work of the 2023 OSCE Moscow Mechanism, which was focused on the deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children by Russia.

🗣 Olha Kuryshko informed the experts on the work of the Mission, with a particular focus on monitoring the situation in temporarily occupied Crimea. The Permanent Representative drew the expert’s attention to the ongoing militarization and indoctrination of children and youth, including through children's camps and paramilitary organizations such as «Movement of the First» and «Yunarmiya», which are also tools for the dissemination of propaganda.

💭 “Crimea lacks educational and cultural programs that would normally support children’s development through learning and creativity. Instead, so-called cultural events, often of a militaristic nature, are organized to mark dates or events significant to Russian propaganda. For example, riding a tank replica in a park is offered as a way to entertain children. There are no other alternative activities in which children can participate.”

Olha Kuryshko also highlighted the involvement of the Russian Orthodox Church in the organization of such “cultural” activities, as well as the ongoing marginalization of the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar languages at educational institutions.

📌 The OSCE Moscow Mechanism is a special investigative procedure, established by the OSCE in 1991 that provides for deploying independent international missions of experts to investigate severe human rights violations, war crimes, and threats to democracy within any OSCE member state, even without the consent of the state being investigated.

06/06/2026

✍ June 6 is Journalist’s Day in Ukraine. Amid the ongoing occupation of Crimea, this date serves as a reminder of the systematic persecution of independent journalists, citizen reporters, and anyone who attempts to tell the truth about the situation on the peninsula.

📌 Since 2014, Russia has de-facto destroyed the independent media in Crimea. The occupation “administration” has shut down Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar media outlets, conducted raids on newsrooms, blocked websites, and persecuted journalists for their professional activities and coverage of human rights violations.

Today, dozens of Crimean journalists and citizen journalists have been persecuted by Russia. Among those unlawfully imprisoned is citizen journalist Server Mustafaiev, coordinator of Crimean Solidarity, whom Russia sentenced to 14 years in prison in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case. Another political prisoner, journalist Remzi Bekirov, whom the occupation “court” sentenced to 19 years in prison for reporting on political repression in Crimea.

At least several dozen journalists and citizen journalists remain behind bars in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and in Russia. The pressure on journalists in Crimea is part of a broader Russian policy aimed at suppressing freedom of speech, intimidating society, and concealing human rights violations on the occupied peninsula.

🇺🇦 On a Journalist’s Day, we express our gratitude to all Ukrainian journalists who continue to work despite the danger, documenting Russia’s crimes and bringing the truth about Crimea and the war to the whole world.

05/06/2026

👤 The Faces of Resistance: The Story of Artem Herasymov, a Political Prisoner from Crimea

📌 Life Before His Arrest

Artem Herasymov was born in 1985 in Yalta. Since his childhood, he was fond of table tennis and wrestling. When he was ten, he developed an interest in religion. His parents did not share the interest, but treated him with understanding.

As a teenager, he lost seven relatives, including his father. Artem was trained as a pastry chef, but went on to work in various jobs and became a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization.

📌 Persecution

In 2019, illegal searches were conducted in the apartment of members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and in Herasymov’s home. On the same day, the occupation authorities opened criminal proceedings against him, accusing him of “organizing the activities of an extremist organization” due to his participation in the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Russia banned this organization in 2017 and, following the occupation of Ukrainian territories, illegally imposed Russian jurisdiction there.

Artem Herasymov was fined 400,000 rubles, but he disagreed with the “court’s” decision and filed an appeal. As a result, on June 4, 2020, the occupation court in Crimea replaced the fine with a six-year prison sentence. After transferring Herasymov to a penal colony, the FSB officers began monitoring his friends and acquaintances.

📌 Behind Bars

Artem Herasymov was initially imprisoned in Penal Colony No. 12 in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, in the Rostov Region of the Russian Federation. However, according to the latest available information, since February 28, 2023, he has been held at Penal Colony No. 10 in Rostov-on-Don city.

04/06/2026

🇺🇦🤝🇱🇻 Permanent Representative Olha Kuryshko held a working meeting with Andrejs Pildegovičs, Ambassador of the Republic of Latvia to Ukraine.

The meeting was also attended by Nelia Hrynyshyn, Head of the Crimea Platform Department, and Kyrylo Pyrohov, Chief Consultant of the Analytical Unit of the Mission.

🗣 Olha Kuryshko informed about the current situation in the temporarily occupied Crimea, as well as about the initiatives aimed at supporting political prisoners, in particular the Mentorship Program. In addition, the parties discussed the importance of countering Russian hybrid threats and increasing the focus on Crimea in the global agenda.

📌 Kyrylo Pyrohov presented research on how Russia, over 12 years of occupation, has turned Crimea into a battleground for hybrid warfare, particularly through the mobilization of local residents for war against Ukraine, the “nationalization” of Ukrainian property, fabricated criminal cases, forced passportization, and other practices.

📌 Nelia Hrynyshyn informed about the Crimea Platform summits and engagement of foreign leaders, experts, opinion leaders, and journalists into keeping the issue of Crimea on the international agenda.

🇺🇦🤝🇱🇻 We are grateful to the Republic of Latvia for its consistent support of Ukraine and active participation in the events of the Mission/Office of the Crimea Platform! Embassy of Latvia in Ukraine/ Посольство Латвійської Республіки в Україні

04/06/2026

📌 In 2014, the Russian Federation forcibly occupied Crimea, a gross violation of international law that resulted in millions of people losing their homes. Despite years of occupation, propaganda, and repression, the fundamental fact remains unchanged: Crimea has not become part of Russia, but is part of Ukraine’s sovereign territory 🇺🇦

✨ Crimea is its people, its multicultural identity, its unique architectural heritage–such as the Khan’s Palace–as well as its artists, music, traditions, and distinctive cuisine, all of which shape its vibrant and unique culture.

🤔 What interesting facts do you know about Crimea?