This year, on July 20 and 21, a stand supporting the Letters to a Free Crimea campaign was set up at the Atlas United 2024 festival at Blockbuster Mall. The location at the event was filled with books and postcards, landscapes of the peninsula, and images of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine. Among the books that were presented to the participants of the action was a collection of Crimean Tatar prose, And a Day was Born, the study ofMykhailo Yakubovych, Philosophical Thought of the Crimean Khanate, and the manual by Natalia Belitser, Crimean Tatars as an Indigenous People.

The Letters to a Free Crimea initiative was also supported at the Odesa International Film Festival, which took place from July 12 to 20 at the Cinema House. The event was attended by directors, actors, and other film industry representatives. Some of them joined the action of writing letters to political prisoners who were sentenced for opposing the occupation regime.

According to the Mission, as of July 22, 2024, Russia is holding 217 people in captivity, including 132 Crimean Tatars. Stands for writing letters to political prisoners are designed to remind the public about illegally arrested and imprisoned citizens with a pro-Ukrainian position on the temporarily occupied Crimean Peninsula.

The 168 letters festival visitors wrote are not just letters; they are 168 signals of hope to the political prisoners. They are a reminder that they are not forgotten and that society and the state are doing everything possible to bring them home as soon as possible.

The initiative organizers are Mission, PEN Ukraine, ZMINA Human Rights Center, and the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine.

We want to emphasize that the Letters to a Free Crimea campaign has been extended until the end of 2024. This is a testament to our ongoing commitment. Our website has details and recommendations on writing and sending a letter.