Russia Day – Day of the Occupier

Today, June 12, the Russian Federation celebrates a public holiday – the so-called “ Russia Day ”. However, for millions of people who have suffered from Russian aggression, this date is not a reason to celebrate at all.

For us, this day is not about statehood, but about occupation. Not about independence, but about imperialism. Not about the future, but about the systemic destruction of rights and freedoms.

The team of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center wants to remind that in the whole civilized world rf is associated only with aggression, destruction and murder. The Russia Day is nothing but the Day of the occupant.

In fact, after the occupation of Crimea, the Russian Federation, misusing its legislation for political purposes, launched mass repressions against Crimean Tatars and pro-Ukrainian activists on the peninsula. Detentions and arrests of people have become a regular practice.

According to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, during the entire period of occupation, the number of political prisoners and those prosecuted in criminal cases reached 412, 244 of whom were representatives of the Crimean Tatar people.

After the full-scale invasion in 2022, russia’s terror became a Ukrainian reality – thousands of citizens were imprisoned in prisons, camps or went missing in the temporarily occupied territories.

But at the same time, russia, which positions itself as a “great power,” is in fact today suffering the largest military losses in its history.

1 MILLION – that’s how much the rf military has already lost as a result of the full-scale war against Ukraine. This is:

5 times more than in all conflicts between the USSR and rf after WWII,
20 times more than in the ten-year war in Afghanistan.

And among these losses are more than 1,300 residents of temporarily occupied Crimea, who went to war against Ukraine with weapons in their hands. They have become expendable in a war that has nothing to do with the interests of Crimea or its residents.

We must speak out loud:

russia is a serial occupier
its “holidays” are the days of shame
“Russia Day” is the day of the state that destroys the freedom and dignity of other peoples.
Our weapon is truth. Our front is to inform. Our duty is not to remain silent.

We urge the international community not to forget: no “Russia” can be a part of the civilized world as long as it continues to wage imperial wars, colonize peoples, destroy languages and cultures.