On February 27, the Crimean House hosted a public discussion on the topic “Occupation of Crimea: the outside view”, dedicated to the Day of Resistance to the Occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

During the conversation, the change of accents in the international coverage of the occupation from 2014 to 2021 were discussed.

Darya Svyrydova, First Deputy Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, commented that “The Mission is making great efforts to gather facts about human rights violations during the temporary occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, as well as information on militarization and the environmental situation. An important task is to consolidate international efforts to support the de-occupation of Crimea, and, of course, to mobilize all internal forces”. 

Participants of the discussion: 

• Darya Svyrydova – First Deputy Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea;

• Refat Chubarov – Chairman of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people;

• Piotr Andryuszko – Polish journalist, Gazeta Wyborcza and Outriders;
• Moderator – Anton Naumlyuk – journalist, editor-in-chief of “Graty”.

An exhibition “7 years of resistance” was also opened as part of the event. It combines video and photo materials from the archives of the “Crimea.Realia” project, authored by editor-in-chief Volodymyr Prytula and journalist Stanislav Yurchenko, starting from protests in Crimea in February-March 2014, when the Russian military seized the peninsula: rally Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people under the building of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea, women’s anti-war actions, footage of the seizure of administrative buildings, military units, the airport, etc. These materials are important reminders of how pro-Ukrainian forces on the peninsula resisted the occupiers.

At the opening of the exhibition, the Permanent Representative of the President in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Anton Korynevych stressed the need for such measures, noting that the exhibition shows resistance in Crimea in 2014 and the current one.

He also reminded of the Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 78/2021 “On certain measures aimed at the de-occupation and reintegration of the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol city”

“There is a lot of important work ahead, which inevitably brings closer to de-occupation of Crimea”.