On 27 June, the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea / Crimea Platform Office hosted a consultative meeting bringing together representatives of the Mission, the expert community, and the UNESCO Antenna in Ukraine. The meeting focused on the situation in Crimea in the areas of freedom of expression, education, culture, sport, and the protection of natural heritage for the period from June 2025 to June 2026.

The event was attended by Permanent Representative Olha Kuryshko, Head of the UNESCO Antenna in Ukraine Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi, as well as human rights defenders and experts working on Crimea-related issues.

The meeting was moderated by Nelia Hrynshyn, Head of the Crimea Platform Support Service.

During the meeting, the Permanent Representative stressed that the situation in temporarily occupied Crimea continues to deteriorate. She noted that Russia is using culture and history as instruments of manipulation and warfare, and that the destruction of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar identity has become part of the aggressor state’s official policy.

“It is normal practice for Russia to destroy everything Ukrainian — mentally and physically — to erase memory, distort history, and displace identity,” said Olha Kuryshko.

In turn, Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi expressed gratitude for the cooperation and underscored the importance of continuous monitoring of the situation in Crimea. She noted that UNESCO continues to document violations in the areas of culture, education, and freedom of expression, and emphasised the need to strengthen practical engagement and coordination in responding to the challenges posed by the Russian occupation.

“We value this cooperation and understand how important it is today not only to document violations, but to strengthen practical engagement in responding to them,” said the Head of the UNESCO Antenna.

Participants also discussed systemic violations of freedom of expression and the persecution of journalists on the peninsula, including the unlawful imprisonment of Crimean journalists, their transfer to Russian pre-trial detention facilities and penal colonies, and the tightening of control over the information space. Particular attention was paid to the dangers faced by independent journalists, bloggers, and civil society activists, the effective destruction of independent journalism in Crimea, and Russia’s use of new instruments of information control, including the MAX messaging application.

The meeting also addressed the militarisation of the educational process, the rewriting of history in line with Russian propaganda narratives, and systemic pressure on educational rights in Crimea. Speakers also touched on the destruction of cultural heritage, violations of the cultural rights of Indigenous peoples and national minorities, the situation in the sphere of sport, and environmental threats to the natural heritage of the occupied peninsula.

In closing, participants emphasised the importance of continued cooperation with international organisations, and with UNESCO in particular, in documenting human rights violations and protecting the cultural and natural heritage of the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea.