In April, a scientific and practical conference with international participation, “International Crimes of the Russian Federation – From Documentation to Punishment,” took place in Ivano-Frankivsk. The event was attended by Liudmyla Shevchuk, Deputy Head of the Department for De-occupation and Reintegration of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol.

In her speech, she emphasised that the occupation of Crimea in 2014 launched a systemic policy of suppressing human rights, which was later extended to other temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

“Crimea was the first platform where Russia began to systematically implement repression practices that were subsequently applied in other occupied territories of Ukraine,” she stated.

Liudmyla Shevchuk also spoke about the violent control exercised by the occupiers on the peninsula — abductions, torture, forced passportisation, and the suppression of freedom of speech. She emphasised that occupation “courts” and administrative mechanisms are used for systemic repressions, particularly through searches, illegal detentions, and fabricated cases against activists, journalists, and Crimean Tatars, which ultimately became a systemic practice of the occupiers.

She also raised the issue of the persecution of the Mejlis and the new “norms” of Russian legislation, including articles on “discrediting the army” and “fakes,” which serve as a pretext for the mass persecution of the civilian population.

Separately, in her speech, Liudmyla Shevchuk detailed the Mission’s work, emphasising that its activities cover several key areas. Specifically, this involves protecting the rights of residents of the temporarily occupied territories and citizens forced to leave the TOT, conducting systemic monitoring of the situation through open sources to record violations and collect evidence, implementing sanctions policy, and taking response measures in cooperation with state institutions and law enforcement agencies.