22 photos of Ukrainian reporters Alina Smutko, Taras Ibragimov and Alyona Savchuk are a unique chronicle of life on the occupied peninsula and documentary evidence of repression against Ukrainian citizens, in particular against representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people.

During 2016-2019, one of the authors of the photo exhibition “Stories from Occupied Crimea”, Alina Smutko, worked in occupied Crimea until she was banned by the FSS from entering the peninsula and the territory of Russia. Alina’s camera recorded the lives of families, often with many children, who were left without a caretaker after mass arrests.

“The stories that I and my colleagues, with whom we worked together in Crimea after the occupation of the 14th year, show in our photographs are the story of the fight against injustice on this side of the prison bars. Relatives of political prisoners went through the ordeal of searches at five in the morning, intimidation and harassment, threats and fines, numerous court hearings, where they had to watch how the system abused their relatives – completely unjustifiably and illegally keeping them in the judicial “aquarium” and in detention centre, accusing them of falsified crimes. And this struggle continues until now, although today we have very few means to see it and show it to the world”, the reporter noted.

The presented photos were taken from 2014 to 2019, while the authors could still travel to Crimea. The Russian occupation administration banned them from visiting the peninsula for a period of 10 to 35 years.

Last year in October, the photo exhibition “Stories from occupied Crimea” was presented at the inter-parliamentary summit of the Crimean Platform (Zagreb, Croatia), as well as in December during the solemn events on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Representation.

Kropyvnytskyi became the second city where the photo exhibition “Stories from Occupied Crimea” was presented to a wide audience of Ukrainian viewers. Previously, it was held in Khmelnytskyi, and it will also be shown in Chernivtsi, Odesa, Lutsk and Lviv.