Crimea

According to Ukrainian authorities, hospitals in the cities of temporarily occupied Crimea, including Armyansk, Krasnoperekopsk, and Dzhankoy, are overcrowded with wounded Russian soldiers, while civilians are being sent to hospitals in Simferopol.

In the full-scale war against Ukraine in the Crimean area, Russia is using forces mobilized from the temporarily occupied territory of eastern Ukraine.

Russian occupation forces in Crimea have begun to actively recruit men into various units of the Russian army to go to war against Ukraine, according to the Crimean Platform.

Ukrayinska Pravda had obtained a document confirming threats of the Russian Ministry of Defence to launch an air attack on Ukraine, after Ukraine had announced its plans to conduct a military exercise near Crimea

Minsk agreements signed in February 2015 is a dead-end road unless Russia doesn’t observe them. Bilateral negotiations on Donbas between Ukraine and Russia should be initiated instead.

‘Stalinist times, the 1930s’ have come back to the occupied Crimea, President Petro Poroshenko said in an interview to CNN.

Khersonska Oblast has started the production of antitank hedgehogs which will be installed on the administrative border with the occupied Crimea.

Russia has recognized the Ukrainian citizenship of Hayser Dzhemilev, son of the Ukrainian MP and leader of the Crimean Tatar People Mustafa Dzhemilev, who was taken to Russia, convicted and imprisoned.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured President Petro Poroshenko that Turkey firmly supports the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.

Martial law and next wave of mobilization may be announced in case of serious escalation of hostilities, President Poroshenko said on August 18 when meeting soldiers. Ukrainian troops are ready to repel possible Russian provocations, he asserted.

Russia uses provocations in Crimea to convince the world that the ‘Normandy format’ is ineffective and to make the West lift sanctions, Deputy Prime Minister on European Integration Ivanna Klympush–Tsintsadze said on Hromadske.

Volodymyr Serdiuk, who was named as ’the mastermind of the sabotage and reconnaissance operation’ allegedly conducted by Ukrainian Military Intelligence in Crimea, has said he has no relation to the intelligence services or special operations.

During a closed session on Saturday, August 13, a District Court in Simferopol ruled to detain Andriy Zakhtiy, who is accused of attempting to perpetrate terror attacks in Crimea, for two months as a pretrial restrictive measure.

Ridvan Suleimanov, one of the ‘saboteurs’ whom Russia accuses of planning explosions in Crimea, was arrested by the FSB about three weeks ago, Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Refat Chubarov (Refat Çubarov) informed on Facebook.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved an extended sanction list of persons involved in illegal sentencing and other unlawful actions against Ukrainian citizens. The list was tabled with the National Security and Defense Council for endorsement.

Russian military personnel exchanged fire in Crimea near Armiansk on August 7.

On the night of August 11, Russian Special Services again blocked the border crossing on the administrative border between Crimea and Ukraine’s mainland.

Russian law enforcement officers are searching the home of Crimean Tatar Refat Mazalov, the Head of the Election Commission of Qurultay Zair Smedlyayev [Zair Smedlâyev] reports.

Patrol boats and ships have been on 24-hour duty at the entrance to Sevastopol Bay for several days now, Krym Realii reports. According to eyewitnesses, they appeared on August 7, after the events at the administrative border with the occupied Crimea.

Another ‘saboteur from Ukrainian Defense Intelligence’ arrested by the FSB is a Lviv-born resident of Yevpatoria who worked in construction, according to a statement of the Crimean Human Rights Group.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine addressed EU member states, US, Canada, Japan, and the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs asking them to influence Russia in order to avoid a new round of aggression related to the latest events in Crimea.

President Poroshenko has invited the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to increase the number of OSCE monitors on the administrative border with Crimea and to request Russia to let the monitors make inspections in Crimea.

President Poroshenko instructed to place all Ukrainian military units deployed near the administrative border with Crimea on alert.

Ukrainian citizen Yevhen Panov was kidnapped in Zaporizhzhia Oblast and taken to Crimea.

Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Volodymyr Yelchenko held an urgent press briefing on the situation in Crimea, following the actions of Russian law enforcement and the statements of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

President Petro Poroshenko said that Russian statements blaming the Ukrainian military for ‘attempts to perform terror attacks’ in Crimea were fantasy in a statement published on Wednesday night, August 10.

The Defense Ministry of Ukraine rejects accusations of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia that Ukrainian Defense Intelligence runs subversive activities in the occupied Crimea.

The Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB) asserts it prevented terrorist acts in the occupied Crimea, allegedly prepared by Ukrainian Defense Intelligence.