A court in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, has announced the verdict for 26-year-old Eldar Abduraimov, a resident of the Crimean village of Kalynivka, sentencing him to 16 years in a high-security penal colony on fabricated charges of allegedly “aiding terrorist activities.”

The occupation administration in Crimea claims that Eldar distributed a video calling for others to join the underground resistance movement ATESH and sent it to his acquaintances, whom, according to the occupiers, he allegedly tried to persuade to commit “terrorist acts” on the peninsula.

The occupying country persecutes Crimean residents because it fears the growing resistance and the potential loss of control over the peninsula. Intimidation, fabricated cases, and harsh sentences have become Russia’s primary tools in its attempts to suppress the will of the peninsula’s residents, who believe in the liberation of Crimea from occupation. However, these methods only fuel outrage and prompt more residents to join resistance movements in various forms, ranging from peaceful acts of dissent to active opposition to the occupation.

Despite the repression, Crimean residents refuse to give up. They continue to resist the occupying regime, fighting for freedom, rights, and justice. The growing resistance movement demonstrates that Crimea remains Ukrainian in the hearts of its residents, and the peninsula’s liberation is drawing closer.