Crimea

A court hearing on compulsory hospitalization of Ilmi Umerov, the Deputy Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, to a psychiatric ward for forensic psychiatric examination will be held on Thursday.

The Russian occupiers suspended the border crossing on their side of Chongar checkpoint in Crimea, the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service reports. This complicates the situation at the administrative border with Ukraine.

The occupying Crimean authorities are asking tourists to refrain from traveling to the peninsula in the coming days, according to the statement on the website of the Russian-controlled Kerch city administration.

Ukraine increased the level of threat because of Russian activities on the occupied peninsula, while the General Staff is ready to address possible threats.

At about midnight on August 8, the land crossing at Kalanchak checkpoint was suspended again on the side of the annexed Crimea, spokesperson for the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service Oleh Slobodyan informs on Facebook on Monday morning.

A major buildup of Russian military equipment has been documented in the northern Crimean cities of Dzhankoi and Armiansk, and tanks and other weaponry are around Dzhankoi.

At about 7am on Sunday, August 7 the Russian authorities suspended border crossings for individuals and vehicles at the administrative border with Crimea for undisclosed reasons.

Users who try to access krymsos.com from different locations on the occupied peninsula see a message that access to the resource is restricted.

The failure of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to address violations of international law by its delegates disrupts the trust to the Assembly, Ukraine’s delegation to PACE states.

On July 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin included the so-called ‘Crimean Federal District’ into Southern Federal District and dismissed Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov.

The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine claims that “Russian occupiers are using an aerostat on the administrative border with Crimea,” allegedly for video surveillance.

Thirty eight works by famous marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky were taken from Aivazovsky Gallery in Feodosia, Crimea to an exhibition in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

Russian singer Diana Arbenina and her band Nochnye Snaipery [Rus: Night Snipers] will tour the annexed Crimea.

Mustafa Dzhemilev, Leader of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people and Petro Poroshenko Bloc MP, said that Ukraine does not think it is possible to return Crimea by military methods.

During a joint press conference with the Secretary General of NATO, President Petro Poroshenko said that it is necessary to start a special program on the ‘de-occupation’ of Crimea.

The Regional Council of Lombardy adopted a non-binding resolution calling to recognize Crimea as part of Russia and lift sanctions against Russia.

The Russia-controlled Arbitration Court of Sevastopol returned an oil depot to a Ukrainian company.

The final amount of damages Ukraine will sue Russia for in the European Court of Human Rights for occupation of Crimea is to be determined after the Court’s decision.

Elmira Ablyailimova, the wife of the Deputy Head of Mejlis of Crimean Tatar People Ahtem Çiygoz, wrote on Facebook about an attempted assault on her on the night of Thursday, June 16.

May 18th is the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Crimean Tatar Genocide. This day in 1944 marked the start of the operation of forced resettlement of Crimeans to Uzbekistan and the Urals region which led to the deportation of more than 180,000 Crimean Tatars in just two days. By different estimates, between 25% and 45% of deported people died on the way and in the so-called special settlements. In 2016, all public remembrance ceremonies for this tragic date in Crimea were banned by the Russian Federation authorities.