Over 350 letters to Crimean political prisoners collected over month of Letters to Free Crimea campaign

The Letters to Free Crimea initiative, organized by the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Human Rights Centre ZMINA, and PEN Ukraine, lasted a month – from April 27 to May 27. However, you can continue to write letters to Ukrainians, whom the occupiers illegally imprisoned in Crimea or deported to the Russian Federation, until the peninsula is de-occupied. 

Over the month of the campaign, more than 350 letters were written to Crimean political prisoners: by relatives and friends, caring strangers, children, public figures. Letters were sent from mainland Ukraine, Poland, Sweden, and Thailand. 

Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Refat Chubarov, Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in Crimea Tamila Tasheva, writers, civil society activists, and intellectuals joined the action: Olha Herasymyuk, Myroslava Gongadze, Vitaliy Portnikov, Sasha Koltsova, Irena Karpa, Myroslav Marynovych, Iryna Slavinska, Andriy Kurkov. 

Letters to Crimeans free in their hearts and minds were also written during this year’s Gongadze Prize awarding ceremony, the Protasiv Yar festival of memory of Roman Ratushny, Memory and Revival event at the M. Hryshko National Botanical Garden. In Poland, in the town of Krakow, the owners of the Nytka coffee shop dedicated a whole day to the initiative – letters from Poland are already being prepared to be sent to the addressees. 

The campaign organizers are grateful to everyone who joined the Letters to Free Crimea initiative: “The least we can do for our fellow citizens imprisoned for their loyalty to Ukraine is to support them with a conversation, a funny story, a drawing or a postcard, even a poem sent. We believe that all political prisoners will soon return home – to the free Ukrainian Crimea. And until that moment, write a letter to the free Crimea in their minds and hearts. We will definitely pass it on!” 

Join in writing letters, following the instruction.