ZMINA joins International Forum of Crimea Platform Expert Network
The International Forum of the Crimea Platform Expert Network “Foreseeing the Future: Expert View” was held in Kyiv on July 18-19. During two days, Ukrainian and international experts and representatives of the authorities discussed the future security architecture of the Black Sea region, considered environmental threats and massive violations of human rights and international law brought by Russian aggression, and also discussed the outlines of the future in the context of post-war Russia.
Photo: Crimea Platform Expert Network The event began with a visit of the participants to the towns and villages in Kyiv region, which suffered from Russian aggression, to see first-hand the consequences of Russian war crimes.
Photo: Visit to towns and villages of Kyiv region. Author: Mykola Myrnyi / ZMINA ZMINA journalist Mykola Myrnyi noted that some Crimean IDPs in Kyiv region were shocked by Russian aggression in the first months of the full-scale invasion. According to him, starting in 2014, they were forced to leave Crimea and settled in satellite towns of the capital, such as Irpin and Bucha, due to cheaper housing there. The journalist believes that, most likely, some Crimeans experienced retraumatization.
“Many Crimean human rights defenders joined Ukraine 5AM Coalition to document international crimes, they went on missions to the recently de-occupied settlements of Kyiv region. During the Forum, Crimean human rights defenders organized a tour for experts to the sites of war crimes in Dymer, Borodianka, Katiuzhanka, Bucha, and Irpin. Some of the Crimeans were stunned, because before Irpin and Bucha were occupied, they played with children in a park, and after the liberation, law enforcement officers found graves of civilians in the same park,” Myrnyi said.
Photo: Discussion “Consequences of Russia’s aggression for Ukraine and the world”. Author: Crimea Platform Expert Network On the first day of the Forum, a panel discussion “Consequences of Russia’s aggression for Ukraine and the world” took place – experts discussed environmental problems on water, on land, and in the air that arose due to the war unleashed by Russia, and ways to solve them.
According to experts, the environmental consequences of the invasion will not be calculated for a long time. However, it is necessary to document all war crimes of the aggressor in this area. It is also important today to develop recommendations for the Ukrainian Government and partner countries and to prepare a road map for overcoming the consequences of the environmental disaster.
Photo: Opening of the second day of the International Forum. Author: Crimea Platform Expert Network The second day of the Forum was opened by First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Emine Dzhaparova who said that there can be no negotiations without Crimea: “There are various proposals. But the position of the state and the president is clear – there can be no negotiations and agreements without Crimea… We have to learn the Crimean lesson: you can’t talk to the aggressor using the language of diplomacy it doesn’t understand.”
Member of the Parliament of Ukraine Maria Mezentseva emphasized: “Russia’s occupation and aggression as the highest type of crime started in March 2014. It all started with Crimea. Everything should end with Crimea.” She added that it was now necessary to start an open dialogue with Crimea, with Ukrainians who have been living under occupation for almost ten years.
“We do not know how de-occupation will take place. Perhaps, the Russian army will leave great destruction behind. But we understand that all reintegration plans are needed now, first of all, on the restoration of control over Crimea,” said Tamila Tasheva, the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
Photo: Discussion “Future global security architecture”. Author: Crimea Platform Expert Network During the first panel discussion “Future global security architecture: Vision from the Black Sea region”, experts considered the state of global security with a special emphasis on the Black Sea region, as well as Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine and its consequences for regional and international security.
“In terms of security, Ukraine, including the Black Sea, has already become a frontier state and will remain so in the foreseeable future until we join NATO. A huge territory of constant, prolonged confrontation between Western civilization and Russian barbarism. The future of Ukraine is a warrior state,” emphasized Andriy Klymenko, head of the Monitoring Group of the Institute for Black Sea Strategic Studies.
Photo: Discussion “Restoration of justice and experts’ role in it”. Author: Crimea Platform Expert Network The second panel session “Restoration of justice and experts’ role in it” was devoted to the topics of combating ecocide, ensuring food security through sustainable grain production and its free transportation, protecting human rights and cultural heritage from Russia’s violations, as well as restoring justice.
In particular, Chairman of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center Eskender Bariyev stressed that the persecution of civilians by the occupying power was gaining momentum: “According to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center data, the occupying power in Crimea detained and prosecutes 294 citizens, 196 of them are representatives of the Crimean Tatar people. 175 people are currently in prison, with 117 representatives of the Crimean Tatar people among them.”
“These people are forced to sit behind bars for their position, for helping others, for expressing their own opinion. At a time when we have an established mechanism for the exchange of prisoners of war, civilians are in limbo. The aggressor state shamelessly abducts, transfers, and imprisons civilians. It is necessary to develop a clear mechanism for their release without equating them with prisoners of war and also to develop ways for the return of political prisoners who were transferred to Russia,” believes Tetiana Zhukova, international advocacy officer at Human Rights Centre ZMINA.
Photo: Discussion “Restoration of justice and experts’ role in it”. Author: Crimea Platform Expert Network Head of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol Ihor Ponochovnyi said that this body continued its work on documenting and investigating war crimes: “Ukraine has the first court verdicts in absentia in the cases of Russian military commissars who force Crimeans to serve in the Russian army and against judges who delivered judgments to deport Ukrainians from Crimea.”
Wayne Jordash, managing partner at Global Rights Compliance LLP, noted that the International Criminal Court was not paying enough attention to investigating Russia’s crimes committed before February 2022. The expert suggested better studying the experience of Crimea because the peninsula is the best place to see what the long occupation leads to.
“The international community should not remove from the agenda the crimes committed by Russia in the territory of Ukraine until February 2022. This is not an object of a bargain,” he said.
Photo: Discussion “Post-war Russia: visions from the democratic states”. Author: Crimea Platform Expert Network During the last panel discussion “Post-war Russia: visions from the democratic states”, experts discussed democratic principles in the context of post-war Russia.
Akhmed Zakayev, Prime Minister of Ichkeria’s government-in-exile, emphasized that Ukraine had become the leader of the free world today and all peoples seeking freedom should be guided by it: “Victory over Russia is freedom for all enslaved peoples. The world should be ready for the fact that Russia must cease to exist. It depends on Ukraine to a large extent whether the world will be ready for this.”
At the same time, Oleksandr Halenko, lecturer at the Kyiv School of Economics, expressed the opinion that the hope for the emergence of democratic societies in the territory of Russia is absolutely futile because the majority of its population has never had its own democratic experience. The expert added that terrorism was the main element of Russian policy. The first victim of Russian terror is the Russian people themselves. Because of this terror and the loyalty it receives, Russia will become a threat to the entire world.
Background: Crimea Platform is an international coordination mechanism initiated by Ukraine to return the Crimean issue to the agenda, protect human rights in Crimea and promote the de-occupation of the peninsula, strengthen European and global security.
The Platform’s activities are carried out at the governmental, parliamentary, and expert levels. The Crimea Platform Expert Network unites Ukrainian and foreign experts, scientists, human rights defenders in seven thematic areas – from cultural heritage to human rights and international humanitarian law.
You can watch the event here.
