MAIN TOPICS:

• On the night of July 17, explosions were heard on the so-called “Crimean bridge”. According to preliminary information, eyewitnesses heard two explosions around 3:20 am. The occupiers reported an “emergency incident” in the area of the 145th pillar from the Krasnodar region.e night of July 17, explosions were heard on the so-called “Crimean bridge”. According to preliminary information, eyewitnesses heard two explosions around 3:20 am. The occupiers reported an “emergency incident” in the area of the 145th pillar from the Krasnodar region.
• The Russian court upheld the verdict against illegally convicted Crimean citizen Zekirya Muratov, despite the evidence of his innocence provided by the defense. Earlier, a Russian court sentenced him to 11 years in prison. The man’s health condition is deteriorating, he suffers from high blood pressure and heart failure, and has a group 3 disability: https://cutt.ly/fwo2Urbw
• Today, political prisoner and civilian journalist Irina Danilovich is being transferred from the temporarily occupied Crimea to the Russian city of Krasnodar. For more than a year in the detention center, she has not received any qualified medical treatment. Danilovich suffers from constant headaches, impaired coordination of movements and exacerbation of her ear disease. Russia continues to blatantly violate the Geneva Convention, according to which the failure to provide medical care is equivalent to torture and ill-treatment: https://cutt.ly/Gwo2UbzY

Crimes of occupation

• As of July 17, it is known that the occupiers in Crimea have illegally imprisoned 180 Ukrainian citizens. 117 of them are representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. Out of the total number of political prisoners, 24 are arrested, 138 are imprisoned, and 18 are without status.
• The Russian court upheld the illegal sentence of Crimean Tatar activists Ernest Ibragimov and Oleg Fedorov, who were unlawfully sentenced to 13 years in a maximum security colony. They will spend the first 3.5 years in the most difficult conditions – in prison.
• The occupiers have completed the investigation of the criminal case against two Jehovah’s Witnesses, Serhiy Parfenovych and Yuriy Gerashchenko. They were charged under the article “organizing the activities of an extremist organization”. This is yet another example of crimes committed by the Russian Federation that demonstrate illegal persecution on religious grounds and violation of the right to freedom of religion.
• Political prisoner Timur Yalkabov has “grown old and lost weight” in a Russian prison. This was reported by his wife, Aliye Muzhdabaeva, who went to see Yalkabov for a long visit in early July. She emphasized that her husband, like other prisoners, is not being fed properly in the prison. Yalkabov’s hands began to go numb and he suffers from vitamin deficiency.
• The ZMINA Human Rights Center reports on the continued pressure on illegally convicted Ukrainian citizens who are losing their health as a result of ill-treatment in prison. Thus, a significant deterioration in the health of political prisoner Bohdan Ziza is reported, who has developed stomach problems after ending his hunger strike.He has not been provided with proper medical care, which can lead to serious consequences.
• Russia has illegally transferred political prisoners Farhod Bazarov, Medzhit Abdurakhmanov and Remzi Bekirov from Ukrainian Crimea to its territory. Farhod Bazarov and Medzhit Abdurakhmanov were transferred to Balashov prison in Saratov region to serve their “sentences”, and Remzi Bekirov – to prison No. 2 in Yeniseisk, Krasnoyarsk region.
• The Russian court refused to keep Crimeans Roman Petrushevsky and Olena Melnyk in the center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Roman Petrushevsky was placed in a deportation center in March 2023, and now the court refused to extend his detention in this center, citing the uncertainty of the terms. A similar decision was made in the case of Olena Melnyk, who was sentenced to eight months in prison in Crimea in 2020 for theft.
• In Sevastopol, a local woman raising three children was fined for “discrediting the Russian army”. As stated in the materials of the “court”, “a 36-year-old woman posted a poem on her social media page discrediting the special military operation in Ukraine”. The so-called “court” imposed an administrative fine of 30 thousand rubles on her.
• In the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula, the hunt for activists and citizens of Ukraine who disagree with the regime and actions of the aggressor state continues. For example, Shevket Kadyrov, born in 1996, who posted the State Flag of Ukraine on his Instagram page, was forced to apologize for his “criminal actions” and was put on the “register”.

Militarization of the Crimean peninsula

• Sources report that in the area of Kozacha Bay, “combat training of personnel with firing from regular weapons” is taking place at the training ground of the so-called “military unit”.In Simferopol, the entire 7th floor of the so-called ‘Semashko Republican Hospital’ was given to military patients. Recently, the influx of wounded Russian soldiers has been so great that another floor is planned to be allocated to accommodate them. The situation is the same in the sanatoriums of the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula, which are filled with Russian army soldiers undergoing rehabilitation.
• The occupiers continue to take measures to militarize the industry and enterprises of Crimea. It is reported that in the temporarily occupied city of Kerch, a “solemn” ceremony of acceptance of the small missile ship “Cyclone”, which was built at the Kerch Shipyard named after B.E. Butoma, into the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation was held.
• The occupiers continue to train anti-submarine warfare units with small arms fire on the Southern Mall and in the Komyshovaya Bay.
• Russia plans to establish a Center for the Support of the Design, Testing, and Production of Drones in Sevastopol. This idea was recorded in the list of orders of the Russian president.
• In Yevpatoria, military training is taking place at a training ground. According to the “city administration”, sharp sounds and pops can be heard from the range.
• The Mission’s own sources in the temporarily occupied territory report that the transport and logistics holding UK Sovfracht LLC is implementing a project to build a wholesale and distribution center in Sevastopol for the needs of the Russian Armed Forces.

Forced mobilization

• The occupiers continue to create an imaginary reality of assistance and benefits for the participants of the “special military operation”. Thus, at a meeting of the occupation administration, they approved a project for planning and delimiting the territory to provide land plots to participants in the so-called “special military operation” and family members of the victims. The “meeting” also allegedly approved a resolution on the procedure for sending a notice of the possibility of granting land ownership free of charge.
• On July 11, a procedure for restricting the right of persons liable for military service to drive a car in case of failure to appear at the occupation “military registration and enlistment office” came into effect in the occupied Crimea. Anyone who fails to arrive after the deadline established by law will be restricted from driving for a day. Restrictions will be lifted in case of voluntary appearance at the “military commissariat”.
• The Russian FSB in the temporarily occupied Crimea is holding conversations with the “heads” of enterprises and forcing them to report on pro-Ukrainian sentiments among employees.
• We remind you of our guide on how to avoid illegal service in the aggressor’s army: https://cutt.ly/cwtipVM4.

Propaganda of the occupation administration and incitement to hatred

• The occupation administration is preparing to hold the “first hearing in the case of Ukraine’s organization of the water blockade of Crimea” on July 31. The occupiers’ lawyers are allegedly already working on a statement of claim for legal entities that have suffered “losses” as a result of the water blockade. These are, in particular, such enterprises as the Crimean Soda Plant, Titan Plant, and others. Drafts of “standard statements of claim” are also being prepared for individuals – individual entrepreneurs who have suffered as a result of the “water blockade”.
• “Representatives” of the occupation administration continue to destroy the historical heritage of Crimea through the so-called “reconstruction” of historical monuments. In particular, the so-called “large-scale works” are being carried out in the Ivan Aivazovsky Art Gallery, the Offshore Oil Terminal, and the Church of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica in Feodosia, the purpose of which is to distort the historical and cultural achievements of the peninsula.
• The occupation administration continues to “play” with imaginary subjectivity in the “international arena”. This time, a “cooperation agreement” was signed with Belarus. The “agreement” was preceded by two more “documents” concluded between the “delegations of the two parties”, which provide for the strengthening of friendly relations and the implementation of joint projects between certain regions of the temporarily occupied Crimea and Belarus.
• In the Simferopol district, the occupiers have set up a “military field camp” for school-age children, where they conduct firearms training and “self-defense courses”. Each shift in the camp lasts 5 days. Over the summer, 600 schoolchildren will visit the tent city.
• The occupiers have introduced benefits for those who plan to enter Crimean higher education institutions. For example, up to 10% of state-funded places were allocated for the participants of the “Svo” and their children in the so-called “Crimean Federal University”. They have the opportunity to enter the university without exams. There are also benefits for applicants from the “new regions of Russia”.
• Russia continues to pursue a violent policy of changing the demographic composition of the temporarily occupied territories. Open sources report that 157 thousand Russians have been brought to Sevastopol since the occupation. Thus, the city’s population has increased from 393 thousand to 560 thousand during the occupation, as the State Duma of the terrorist country happily reported.
• Russian barbarians in the temporarily occupied Crimea are calling for acts of vandalism at the Turkish military cemetery in Sevastopol, where Turkish soldiers who died in the battles of the Crimean War of 1853-1856 are buried.
• The head of the occupation administration, the so-called “head of Crimea” Aksyonov, said that “the development of regular passenger traffic between Crimea and the ‘new regions of Russia’ is one of the most important tasks.” With this in mind, on July 1, 2022, bus service was launched between the so-called “Republic of Crimea” and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
• The aggressor state continues to take measures to integrate the newly occupied territories into its socio-economic space, and in this regard, it uses the administrative potential of Crimea. Thus, on the basis of the Vernadsky Kyiv Polytechnic University, the “management personnel” of the newly occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions were trained, in particular, 140 representatives from these regions were “taught” the “intricacies of Russian legislation”.

Publications of the occupation media

• A selection of Russian propaganda narratives this week: “the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 is a legal crime”, “Ukrainian entrepreneurs are under the Nazis”, “Ukraine has caused Crimea great losses as a result of the blockade, which must be compensated to the penny”, “Europeans want to steal Scythian gold”, “the Ukrainian army will fire cluster shells at civilians”, “Ukraine is taking out its anger on those who do not support the ideas of the Kyiv regime,” “neither Kyiv nor the United States has any real plans to de-occupy Crimea,” “the Kyiv authorities have done nothing good for Crimea,” “Crimea has never been a native territory for Ukrainians.”

Public attitudes

• The occupation administration continues to impose thoughts about the grandiose “success” of the tourist season in Crimea. One of the indicators of this is the alleged “number of vehicles on the roads of Crimea”, “increased occupancy of the hotel room stock” and “at least 300 thousand people connected with the tourism industry”. But the occupiers’ “ambitions” have no limits – they plan to create a year-round seaside resort, which will allegedly be able to receive at least 10 million tourists a year.
• An explosion occurred in one of the yards of Feodosia. Preliminary, two versions are being considered: an explosive device or the explosion of a gas tank with fuel in a moped. It is known that a pro-Russian blogger and Taliban collaborator, known for persecuting and harassing Crimean residents for supporting Ukraine, lives in this house.
• In the village of Izumrudne, Dzhankoy district of the occupied Crimea, employees of the Barbaros restaurant refused to serve the Russian military.
• Crimean seagulls warn the occupiers about the beginning of a real “explosive summer”. One of its primary events is the denazification of the illegal bridge. Activists of the resistance movement emphasize that the explosions in the occupied Crimea are their rather jewelry work – against the occupiers, against the military infrastructure of the Russian Federation, in order to nullify their ability to kill and torture people and liberate the peninsula.

• Activists of the Yellow Ribbon movement continue their resistance in the occupied Crimea. Over the past week, they have distributed more than 250 ribbons, 140 leaflets and almost 100 graffiti in Crimea – symbols of Ukrainian resistance in the temporarily occupied territory. The activists managed to stick posters in the very center of Simferopol, as well as in Yalta, Feodosia, and Bakhchisarai.
• ATES does not stop fighting the so-called Z-patriots in the temporarily occupied Crimea. This time, owners of cars with Z symbols were targeted by the resistance movement, with punctured tires, painted over windows and broken parts. According to ATESH activists, there are many options to teach the “patriots” a lesson.
• The Mission continues to receive inquiries from Ukrainian citizens who want to leave Crimea because they cannot tolerate the occupation and total propaganda. We remind you of our instructions on how to leave the temporarily occupied Crimea: https://cutt.ly/FwtiajlS

We thank the conscious Ukrainian citizens in the occupied Crimea for promptly reporting on the situation on the Crimean peninsula, in particular on the socio-economic situation, the movement of Russian troops, the movement of resistance to the occupation, etc.

For more information, please send an e-mail to the Mission’s Information Support Department: [email protected]

Glory to Ukraine!