How Ukraine should prepare for the reintegration of Crimea: ZMINA participated in an important discussion in Odesa
On 14 March 2025, the Odesa National Fine Arts Museum hosted a public discussion about Crimea and the resistance to the occupation, which has lasted for 11 years, as part of the exhibition “Unseen Force”. Among all the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, Crimea has been in this state for the longest time, since 2014. During this time, a generation has grown up that no longer remembers what it was like to live in Ukraine. At the same time, there are people in Crimea who remain a threat to the occupying Russian authorities. After 2014, Crimea became visible in a new light from within Ukraine.
Is the return of the peninsula possible? How will de-occupation and reintegration be carried out? And what can we do today to make this possible?
The answers to these questions were sought by Alena Lunova, Advocacy Director of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, Martin-Oleksandr Kisly, PhD in History and Lecturer of the Department of History at the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”, Fevzi Mamutov, Head of the NGO Crimean Tatars of Odesa Region and Deputy of the Odesa Regional Council, and Mavile Khalil, Editor-in-Chief of the Crimean Tatars website and Editor of the Tamırlar project.
During the discussion, the participants discussed the key challenges facing Ukraine on the way to de-occupation of Crimea and its reintegration. According to Alena Lunova, reintegration issues need to be seriously considered now: “We are concerned with how we will de-occupy Crimea. Despite the fact that Ukraine has no experience of de-occupying long-term occupied territories, because we are talking about territories that have been occupied for years. At the same time, we have an understanding of the difficulties we may face. These include the issue of documents issued during the occupation, education, prosecution for collaboration, and the restoration of state authorities. All of these things are theoretically clear to us, and we can already develop solutions“.
Alena LunovaAlena Lunova also emphasised the importance of studying the mechanisms of Russian influence on the occupied territories and Ukraine as a whole.
“At the same time, the occupation is still ongoing and Russia’s destructive actions and influence on the territory of Ukraine continue. That is why we need to take the study of the occupation very seriously, including the cognitive study — how Russia is influencing Ukraine, how it was preparing for the occupation. It is important for us to understand how Russia influences our country, how it prepares the ground for future aggressive actions. That is why it is very crucial for us to study the tools of occupation: how Russia influences through social media, through culture, language, and historical narratives. We have not studied all this yet, but we need to,” said the Advocacy Director of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA.
The event was organised by the platform of memory culture “Past / Future Art”, the Odesa National Fine Arts Museum, and the Ukrainian Association of Cultural Studies Lviv (UAC-Lviv).
Photo: the Odesa National Fine Arts Museum
