Without liberation of Crimea, there will be no guarantees of the European security in the world. That is a statement by Olha SKRYPNYK, the Head of the Board of the Crimean Human Rights Group, at the session of the “Crimea Week” at the European Parliament.
“Crimea has been occupied by russia for a lengthy period. It clearly demonstrates that pending occupation entails continued sufferings, intensified political persecution, militarization and elimination of the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar identities”, – Olha SKRYPNYK maintains.
Olha SKRYPNYK reiterates that 18 Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian journalists remain behind the bars, each of them spoke genuinely on the violations of the human rights in Crimea. 17 of them have been illegally placed into the prisons of the RF, and only one, Vladyslav YESYPENKO, has been detained in the colony of Crimea.
Russia has intensified the persecution of women in Crimea – the human rights defender stressed. Among the females persecuted there are the journalists, the activists, the participants of the protestations against the russian occupation.
“The FSB has been trumping up the criminal cases against them, applying violence and the psychological pressure, preventing them from getting the medical aid they need. Yet another method of the pressure on women is threatening to abduct their children and place them into the orphanages in russia. Prior to the full scale invasion the Crimean lists of the political prisoners had included from 3 to 5 females. To date the Crimean Human Rights Group has recorded at least 22 female civilians from Crimea, the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya detained in Crimea and in the RF under the political grounds”, – Olha SKRYPNYK claims.
The number of the political prisoners is constantly growing – O.SKRYPNYK adds. At least 265 nationals of Ukraine are imprisoned within the politically motivated Crimean cases. The persecution of civilians tested in Crimea is being widely applicable on the territories occupied after 2022. Crimea is a place of torturing of the civilians abducted in the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya. Even those who have served their illegal sentences are not free to be back home. Once released, they are immediately placed into so called centres of the deportation, meanwhile the russian authority refuses to deport them and makes it impossible for them to leave russia on their own.
“The stories of the political prisoners confirm that Crimea has not become russian, in spite of the repressions and the occupation, thanks to those brave people who have been fighting for the Ukrainian Crimea. It is vital to keep their resistance well perceptible and to contribute to their release through wide international attention. We urge to join the initiatives of the civil mentoring for the political prisoners of Crimea… The respect of the human rights and the humanitarian issues crucial for the residents of the occupied territories shall be the part of the negotiation process. It is also about the call for russia to provide the comprehensive information on all detained civilians, to free them all, including the residents of Crimea, to let them freely leave the occupied territories or russia”, – the Head of the Board of the Crimean Human Right Group states.
“Crimea week” session at the European Parliament is dedicated to 81 anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars. It is about the pending human rights violations in the temporarily occupied Crimea and the urge to concentrate the human dimension in the efforts to cease the russian aggression.
