The National Botanical Garden named after M.M. Hryshko of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine hosted the event “Memory and Revival”, organized by the Mission and the NGO CrimeaSOS. The participants of the event were landscaping the “Crimea” section.

As part of the event, the guests and the team of the Mission planted Crimean pines on the plot. The event was joined by the Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Refat Chubarov, Head of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol Igor Ponochovny, Head of the Permanent Delegation of Ukraine to PACE Maria Mezentseva, Co-Chairman of the NGO “Crimean Platform” Vadym Halaychuk, Head of the Board of CrimeaSOS Oleksiy Tilnenko, and artist Rustem Skybin.

The military, representatives of law enforcement agencies, the Ministry of Justice, representatives of the non-governmental sector, opinion leaders and the media also joined the cleanup of the Crimean section.

“Crimea has its own special markers for virtually every Crimean Tatar family, and these markers are 99% natural. I am very worried that when we return, we will no longer find our Ukrainian peninsula as it was, because the occupiers did not care about it, but rather destroyed it,” said Refat Chubarov.

Maria Mezentseva spoke about the work of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE and drew attention to the fact that Russia is also committing ecocide in Crimea, and the assessment of this crime of occupation is already available – at least 2.5 trillion euros.

“We hope that together with you we will be able to do even more for this Crimean area. And after the de-occupation of the Crimean peninsula takes place, we will be able to plant additional plants here, and then together with you do important things on the territory of the peninsula itself. This is our first cleanup here, but it will definitely not be the last. We, as the Mission, promise to continue to hold such events and together we will make this corner of Crimea even more beautiful,” Tamila Tasheva said and thanked everyone for their participation.

We are sincerely grateful to CrimeaSOS and the staff of the National Botanical Garden named after M.M. Grishko for organizing the event! We believe that together we will restore not only order, but also natural beauty in the Crimea section and in Crimea itself!