A year of repression and impunity: over a thousand human rights violations recorded in Crimea

Human rights activists document large-scale repressions in occupied Crimea in 2025: hundreds of detentions, searches and cases of unfair court decisions indicate a systematic violation of basic freedoms for Crimeans, especially the Crimean Tatar people.

According to the analysis of human rights violations on the peninsula, presented by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center (CTRC), the persecution is systemic and is accompanied by violations of the right to a fair trial, medical care and personal security.

"In 2025, 159 detentions were recorded, 48 of which were against members of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. Crimean residents were detained on suspicion of involvement in organizations banned in the Russian Federation, for "discrediting the Russian Armed Forces", "espionage", "treason", "terrorist act", etc.", - said Eskender Bariev, Chairman of the Board of the CTRC, member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people.

In addition, in 2025, human rights activists documented 333 cases of violations of the right to a fair trial, of which 150 were against Crimean Tatars. There were also 76 cases of violations of the right to health, mainly in relation to political prisoners who are not provided with adequate medical care in pre-trial detention centers and colonies.

The condition of Crimean political prisoners is of particular concern. According to the CTRC, 10 of them have disabilities, at least 28 are elderly, and inadequate conditions of detention have already led to deaths.

"Currently, according to our data, there are 10 political prisoners in Crimea who have disabilities. In addition, at least 28 political prisoners are elderly. For them, the sentences can be fatal," noted Tatiana Savchuk, CTRC Communications Manager.

In addition to arrests and prosecutions, the CTRC recorded at least 12 cases of enforced disappearances. The human rights activists also drew attention to the growing practice of holding people in incommunicado status - without contact with their families and lawyers, as well as to a new trend of depriving political prisoners of Russian citizenship with the subsequent threat of deportation.

"Both stories and numbers are important to us. Because it is the numbers that allow us to prove that we are not talking about isolated cases, but about a systemic, genocidal policy towards Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars and all citizens of Ukraine," Bariiev emphasized.

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