Russia holds hundreds of Ukrainians in Crimea without official confirmation
Kyiv • UNN
Russia is holding hundreds of stateless Ukrainians in Crimea, their whereabouts have not been confirmed by Russia.
Russia is holding hundreds of Ukrainians in the temporarily occupied Crimea in the status of incommunicado, that is, whom Russia does not confirm that it is holding. This was reported by the head of the board of the Crimean Human Rights Group Olga Skrypnyk during a press conference, according to a correspondent of UNN.
When asked how many Ukrainians are being held in the incommunicado stage, Skrypnyk answered:
"As for incommunicado, this is a status when Russia does not confirm... Only at the end of 2022, only in SIZO #2 (in Simferopol - ed.), we knew that at least 110 people were held at the same time, and we can confirm this as international organizations want, only 50-55 (people - ed.). Therefore, we are talking about hundreds of people".
According to her, the difficulty is that people who are incommunicado, that is, whom Russia has not confirmed but brought to a detention center, for example, do not appear on any court website, and a lawyer cannot visit them.
"We know for sure that some of them are constantly being transported. We did have a few situations where people were simply released, but it was literally three people," Skrypnyk said.
Before that, she showed a slide that said that the Crimean Human Rights Group had submitted information to the Independent International Commission of Investigation into Violations in Ukraine about 53 civilian prisoners who had been abducted by Russians in the south and taken to occupied Crimea.
"After February 24, when Russia occupied new territories, part of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Crimea also became a prison for them. Civilians, we are talking about them... We recorded the first cases in March 2022, when people from the south began to appear in SIZO No. 1 (in Simferopol - ed.), terribly beaten and in a terrible condition. In the summer, Russia opens a new detention center in Crimea - No. 2, and now it has opened another detention center - No. 8," Skrypnyk said.
The Permanent Representative of the President in Crimea Tamila Tasheva reported that the occupation regime illegally detained at least 186 Ukrainian citizens in Crimea, approximately 123 of them Crimean Tatars.