For nearly two years in Russian captivity, Leniie Umerova clung to a single hope: that one day, she would return home — to Crimea. “I thought about Crimea all the time,” Umerova told the Kyiv Independent. “I dreamed of going there without the permission of the occupying forces, without going through
The U.S. is reportedly considering officially recognizing Russian control over occupied Crimea as part of a potential peace agreement — a territorial concession that would kill the existing world order and is deemed unacceptable by Ukraine. According to Axios, the Trump administration's final proposal for ending Russia's all-out war against
"Crimea is the homeland of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people and an integral part of Ukraine. Accordingly, no one can decide the fate of Crimea under any circumstances, except for the Ukrainian state and the Crimean Tatar people," said Refat Chubarov.
Nearly 5,500 residents of Russian-occupied Crimea were mobilized into the Russian army in 2024, according to the report of the Mission of the President of Ukraine in Crimea, published on Dec. 4.
Ediye Muslimova, the editor-in-chief of a Crimean Tatar children's magazine, disappeared in Russian-occupied Crimea on Nov. 21. Local sources say she was forced into a vehicle by three men and is being detained by the Russian FSB.
The Ukrainian documentary "Jamala. Songs of Freedom" won the Gold Dolphin at the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards, in the Human Concerns and Social Issues category.
"We could put it under a U.N. mandate with a mission to prepare a fair referendum after checking who the legal residents are and so on... And we could postpone it for 20 years," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski suggested as one possible option, according to Interfax-Ukraine.
Sejm, the lower chamber of Poland's parliament, passed a resolution on July 12 to commemorate the victims of the Soviet genocide of Crimean Tatars in 1944.
"Thank you to Google for this crucial initiative, which demonstrates that the rich linguistic & cultural heritage of Ukraine's indigenous people is valuable to the global community," Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said on X.
Ukraine has brought back 10 people from Russian captivity, including Crimean Tatar activist Nariman Dzhelial, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on June 28.
In late April 2024, in central Kyiv, heavy cranes began dismantling a sculpture erected to commemorate 17th-century Pereiaslav Treaty between the Cossacks and Muscovites, symbolically closing a chapter of a shared history. It was the very same agreement lauded by Russian President Vladimir Putin as supposed evidence of Ukraine's historical
Editor’s Note: This article was published by the blog “The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak” on March 14, 2024, and has been re-published by the Kyiv Independent with permission. To subscribe to "The Counteroffensive," click here. Dilaver Saidakhmetov's grandfather wasn’t a practicing Muslim, but that didn’t stop him
President Volodymyr Zelensky passed to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan the list of Ukrainian citizens, including Crimean Tatars, captured by Russia after their meeting on March 8 in Istanbul.
Editor’s Note: The names of Crimea’s former and current residents cited in this article were changed to protect their identity amid security concerns. When Ukrainians talk about Crimea, they often talk about memories. For many, this peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea was a place where they spent
President Volodymyr Zelensky presented the award to Dzhemilev on his 80-year-old birthday, thanking him "for protecting the freedom of Ukraine and the Crimean Tatar people."
Russia's top propagandist, Olga Skabeeva, interrupted her talk show on May 16 to share "breaking news" with the Russian people. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) uncovered a spy, Skabeeva said, who had been feeding information about Russian military infrastructure and equipment to Ukrainian authorities. "A (criminal) case was opened
Russia's war against Ukraine began in Crimea. In February 2014, as the pro-Russian regime in Kyiv was killing protesters on the barricades of the EuroMaidan Revolution, thousands of Russian troops without insignia began occupying strategic locations and military bases in the Crimean Peninsula. Within a month, Russia had illegally annexed
They usually come at four or five in the morning. Men in uniform and with guns pull up in large vehicles. The dogs start barking. The family wakes up, knowing exactly what is about to happen. The house is searched. Phones and computers are taken away. And so is the
UNESCO added Örnek, the traditional ornament of Ukraine’s Crimean Tatar minority and its lore to the List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, on Dec. 16. “This is a clear victory for Ukraine. After all, it clearly shows that the culture of Crimea is extraordinary and needs to
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