On February 16, in the temporarily occupied Crimea, Russian security forces searched the home of Halyna Balaban, an activist of the Ukrainian Cultural Center (UCC). This was announced by the activist of the UCC Olena Popova.
The search was carried out as part of an administrative case on public demonstration of the symbols of an extremist organization for Balaban’s post on the VKontakte social network in 2018.
Immediately after the search, she was taken to the controlled Kyiv District Court of Simferopol, where her administrative protocol was examined. Balaban was fined two thousand rubles and her phone was confiscated.