At least 15 Crimean journalists are currently in prison – human rights activists

Ukrinform

Since the start of the full-scale war, Russia has stepped up pressure on Crimeans who publicly support Ukraine – at least 15 journalists and bloggers are currently imprisoned. Krym.Realii reports this, citing the Crimean Human Rights Group.

According to researcher Iryna Sedova, Russian security forces arrest public figures and ordinary citizens alike for expressing their views: for social media posts and even conversations with their colleagues at work.

"For this, they are actively making use of a new article of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, which prohibits discrediting the Russian army. So far, we have reports of at least 200 administrative cases 'for discrediting the Russian army' opened against Crimeans over the past year," she said.

Sedova stated: lately people have been facing fines or even imprisonment for singing Ukrainian songs in the streets.

"We recorded a case where a person was fined 50 thousand rubles for the motto 'Slava Ukraini! Heroyam Slava!' Six Crimean Tatars were fined at the same time for the song 'Oy u Luzi Chervona Kalyna', and another one was arrested for 15 days. Another person was also arrested for 13 days for singing the Ukrainian national anthem on the street," she said.

Pro-Ukrainian locals continue to face persecution in Crimea and Sevastopol. Namely, pro-Russian Crimean blogger Alexandr Talipov posts personal data of pro-Ukrainian Crimeans on his Telegram channel. Crimeans are facing administrative and criminal responsibility for "discrediting" the Russian army thanks to Talipov. The Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office has opened a case against Talipov under the article "inciting national enmity and hatred".