On February 26, 2014, more than 15,000 residents of Crimea expressed their support for the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Nine years ago, on the initiative of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, a large-scale rally was held in Simferopol, during which Crimean Tatars, Ukrainians and pro-Ukrainian citizens spoke out against the “joining” of Crimea to the Russian Federation.<\/p>\n
On that day, the civil society of Crimea defended the territorial integrity of Ukraine in a peaceful, legal way, not allowing the Russian Federation and its agents in Crimea to hold an extraordinary session to simulate the supposed “voluntary transfer” of Crimea to Russia.<\/p>\n
The mass non-violent resistance of the inhabitants of the peninsula, unfortunately, could not prevent the temporary occupation of Crimea, which has been going on for 9 years. The Crimean Tatar people – the indigenous people of Crimea, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and residents of other nationalities who remain loyal to the Ukrainian state – remain hostages of the Russian occupiers.<\/p>\n
According to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, during the occupation of Crimea, 276 political prisoners and those prosecuted in criminal cases were recorded, 195 of them were the representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. We also learned\u00a0 that about 60 people died during the occupation of Crimea, 28 of whom were the representatives of the Crimean Tatar people, and that there were registered about 21 victims of enforced disappearances during the occupation\u00a0 period of Crimea, 15 of whom were the representatives of the Crimean Tatar people.<\/p>\n
Searches, detentions, arrests, murders, kidnappings – all these are not fictions, but present day realities. In addition, thousands of administrative “cases” against the pro-Ukrainian population on the peninsula have been opened.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians were forced to leave Crimea due to persecution, and after February 24, 2022, due to illegal mobilization into the ranks of the Russian army, in order not to take part in the criminal war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n
And unfortunately, nothing ended with the occupation of Crimea …<\/p>\n
A year ago, the Russian Federation launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For more than 9 years, Ukrainians have been forced to defend\u00a0 their country from a common enemy. But we continue to fight for our freedom, for our Motherland.<\/p>\n
We fought then, in 2014, when the Russians occupied Crimea – we will win now!<\/p>\n
Friends, our way home continues!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On February 26, 2014, more than 15,000 residents of Crimea expressed their support for the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Nine years ago, on the initiative of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, a large-scale rally was held in Simferopol, during which Crimean Tatars, Ukrainians and pro-Ukrainian citizens spoke out against the “joining” of Crimea to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[315],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n