In occupied Crimea, Crimean Tatars oppressed most - ombudsman

The Commissioner for Human Rights in Ukraine, Dmytro Lubinets, said this in a speech at the meeting entitled Human Rights and Crimean Tatars in the Occupied Part of Ukraine, which took place in Ankara, reports an Ukrinform correspondent.

"On the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea, representatives of the indigenous people - the Crimean Tatars - are those who are persecuted and opressed the most. There are currently 190 political prisoners held in Crimea or already removed to the Russian Federation. Of them, 123 are Crimean Tatars. Most of them were detained in violation of all norms of international humanitarian law," Dmytro Lubinets said.

The ombudsman noted that under the pretext of evacuation, the Russians have been deporting or forcibly relocating Ukrainian children since 2014. According to available data, about 20,000 Ukrainian children were deported, but this figure may be times higher.

"Russia violates the international legal order and brazenly disregards international humanitarian law. The war has been going on in Ukraine for more than nine years, and since February 2022, with the beginning of full-scale armed aggression, Ukrainians have been choosing freedom, independence and democracy at the cost of their lives. Russia encroaches on the inalienable, fundamental rights of Ukrainians, kills civilians, abducts our children, destroys homes, schools and hospitals, destroys entire cities and villages, holds the civilian population hostage. Thousands of people killed and wounded is about the genocide of our people," Lubinets emphasized.

According to him, the citizens who found themselves in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine are the most vulnerable category, as they can be exploited in armed conflict, subjected to human trafficking, forced labor, and other types of exploitation. The occupying state defiantly violates the rights to freedom of movement, access to legal aid and justice, rights to education, social protection, etc.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, a total of 28,000 Ukrainian civilians are currently held captive by the Russian Federation.