Administrative pressure and repression intensified in occupied Crimea

Crimea has been under Russian occupation for over eleven years. Systematic pressure and repression have been introduced on the peninsula, and administrative pressure has increased over the past year.

This was reported by the press service of the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

Thus, on December 26, in the temporarily occupied Crimea, with the participation of FSB officers and police, a forceful seizure of the historic 16th century Yevpatoria Khan Jami Mosque took place: the "spiritual administration" controlled by the occupation administration, with the support of security forces, removed the local community from Friday prayers and imposed its own imam. The community reports harsh detentions, the removal of people to an unknown destination, and extrajudicial pressure amid pending litigation over the right to use the mosque.

The report also says that the occupiers continue to reinforce the coastline. According to the press service, the Crimean Wind monitoring group reported on defensive structures along the Yevpatoria-Saki road, as well as on the fixation of engineering equipment in Saki that could be used to dig trenches.

At the same time, the regime of control and intimidation is being intensified: Yellow Ribbon activists reported intensified checks at the entrance/exit from Yevpatoriya - security forces are selectively stopping cars and almost all buses, inspecting things, and representatives of the occupation administration are also on duty at checkpoints.

The press service also noted that the occupation is destroying basic services and life safety: in Kerch, residents are complaining en masse about the quality of tap water, while the occupier-controlled Water of Crimea enterprise is trying to justify the problem with "phytoplankton" and claims that the water is supposedly suitable for consumption.

The ATESh resistance movement also reports systematic coercion of wounded Russian military personnel in hospitals in Crimea and Donetsk: instead of being legally discharged, they are reportedly returned to the front through pressure and the imposition of new contracts.

In addition to political imprisonment, illegal administrative repression is also widely used on the peninsula. As of December 31, 2025, 1657 cases of materials drawn up under Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (discrediting the actions of the armed forces of the Russian Federation - ed.) were recorded in the so-called "courts" in the temporarily occupied Crimea and other "competent authorities". In 1,542 cases, decisions on imposing an administrative penalty in the form of a fine have already been issued or the materials have been joined to other proceedings with a cumulative decision; in 2 cases, the proceedings are ongoing. According to the available data, 816 decisions (53%) were issued against women, 724 (47%) against men.

At the same time, there is an increase in the number of cases under this article: in 2024, 494 cases were considered by the "courts" of the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied Crimea, and in 2025, 518 cases were considered (24 cases or about 5% more). The largest concentration of such proceedings is in Armyansk: in 2024, 220 out of 494 cases (about 44%) were considered by the so-called "Armyansk City Court", and in 2025 - 264 out of 518 (over 51%), which indicates that this "court" is used as one of the key tools of administrative pressure and repressive decisions.

Володимир Шкаєв