Ukraine marks Day of Resistance to Occupation of Crimea
It was on this day in 2014 that a rally was held in front of the building of the ARC's Supreme Council (Crimean parliament) in Simferopol in support of Ukraine's territorial integrity.
The rally was attended by members of the Crimean Tatar community, activists of the Euromaidan Crimea movement, and other Crimeans. They rallied against a parliamentary session, which was supposed to address the peninsula's secession from Ukraine. A pro-Russian rally was simultaneously held near the ARC's Supreme Council.
The Ukrainian-language service of Germany's DW wrote at that time that about 10,000 participants in the pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian rallies were separated by 300 police officers without necessary gear.
Read also: Crimean Tatar activist Gafarov dies in Russian custody
Two people died in clashes on that day. As a result, pro-Ukrainian activists pushed back the pro-Russian rivals and the ARC's Supreme Council failed to gather for its special meeting.
However, at night, Russian special forces in military uniform without insignia seized the parliament's building. On March 16, a sham referendum on Crimea's "accession" to the Russian Federation was staged.
Later, the occupation authorities opened a case against participants in the pro-Ukrainian rally and handed down illegal sentences to a number of activists.
On Feb. 26, 2020, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree establishing the Day of Resistance to the Occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol.
Read also: Russia to imprison five Crimean Tatars for a total of 65 years
"For nine years to the day, our Crimea has been fiercely fighting for its right to live in a free European country," Tamila Tasheva, the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in Crimea, wrote on Feb. 26, 2023.
"Nine years since Russia unleashed a bloody war. For nine years it has been colonized, militarized, and prepared for a full-scale invasion. For nine years, they have been trying to establish the regime of an inept dictator in the occupied Crimea. 'Trying' is worth emphasizing, because the occupiers have not succeeded in doing so."
On the Day of Resistance to the Occupation of Crimea, Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said that 180 people had become political prisoners of the Kremlin since the Russian seizure of the peninsula. Of these, 116 are Crimean Tatars.
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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
