Main image: Crimean Tatars in Kyiv, 18 May 2015, marking the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s forced deportation of their forebears from Crimea in 1944. Nazar Furyk/Zuma/Alamy
Ukraine has provided Turkey with lists of over 40 critically ill Crimean political prisoners who are illegally detained by Russia.
This information was shared by Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada’s Human Rights Commissioner.
According to Lubinets, his representative for Crimean residents, Elvin Kadyrov, participated in the 10th annual conference on minority rights in Turkey, where he highlighted the priorities of the Ukrainian Ombudsman's Office, particularly efforts to implement the fourth point of the peace formula.
Kadyrov also detailed human rights abuses in temporarily occupied Crimea, including violations of freedom of speech, restrictions on peaceful gatherings, and repression of Crimean Tatars in the area of native language education, alongside numerous arbitrary arrests on political and religious grounds. Lubinets emphasized that Russian authorities continue to torture unlawfully convicted Ukrainian citizens and deny them proper medical care, resulting in the deaths of two Crimean political prisoners.
Currently, more than 40 illegally sentenced Ukrainian citizens, primarily from the indigenous Crimean Tatar community, are in critical need of medical assistance. Kadyrov concluded by providing the list of ill political prisoners to Turkey, urging Turkish support in facilitating medical care for them and in ongoing efforts toward their release.
