Ukrainian Crimea: 10 years of occupation
On February 26, 2024, Ukraine commemorates 10 years since the beginning of the resistance to the occupation of Crimea and the start of the war that Russia waged against Ukraine. This day is meant to remember and honour the courage of thousands of residents of the Crimean Peninsula, who on February 26, 2014, went to the streets in Simferopol in a meeting to support the territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as all those who resisted and continue to resist the occupiers on the peninsula. The struggle goes on.
The residents of Crimea have become hostages of the Russian occupation, a deliberate act by Russia violating international law. There was active suppression of protests and threats of physical elimination to those who dared to resist. Arbitrary detentions and forcible abductions of our citizens occurred.
More than 100,000 Ukrainians left everything behind and fled Crimea. They left not because of war and shelling, but because they could not breathe the “Russian air” in Crimea.
The transformation of Crimea into a military base for the aggressor, repression and persecution of those who disagree with the occupation regime, the destruction of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar identity, and the demolition of historical and cultural heritage are what the Russians have systematically committed in Crimea for 10 years. The same methods are applied in territories captured after February 24, 2022.
For ten years, the illegal annexation and temporary occupation of the peninsula by Russia and the struggle to restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity have continued. The entire world has seen how the occupation of territories turned into a war against an entire nation, how tens of thousands of people are ruthlessly killed, and millions are forced to leave their homes. How the invaders destroy towns and villages, leaving behind only ruins.
Теги: Crimea, occupation of Ukrainian territories