At least 12,000 civilians forcibly deported from Crimea by Russian authorities

This was reported by Vitalii Sekretar, First Deputy Head of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, during the presentation of the project War Crimes in Crimea in Kyiv, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“When we began studying how the Russian Federation deports civilians from Crimea, we identified about 12,000 court rulings issued by occupation authorities on such cases. These rulings involve 12,000 clearly established individuals,” Sekretar said.

He emphasized that it is difficult to determine the exact number of victims of the Russian occupation authorities’ actions in Crimea, since not all those affected realize they have become victims of war crimes.

Sekretar added that not all people who were forced to leave the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea have official status as internally displaced persons (IDPs).

“According to statistical data, about 55,000 people from Crimea have received IDP status. But how many did not — because they didn’t want to go through the legal procedure? It seems around 28,000 people refused that status altogether. Many others left for Western countries,” he noted.

At the same time, Sekretar urged those affected by the unlawful actions of the occupying authorities in Crimea not to be afraid to report such incidents to Ukrainian law enforcement agencies.

“First of all, no one has access to criminal case materials except the prosecutor and the investigator. If a person fears for their safety, there is a law providing protection for participants in criminal proceedings. Moreover, when we submit information to the International Criminal Court (ICC), we always seek the person’s consent first. In any case, victim information remains with us. When we transfer materials to the ICC, the data are encrypted — meaning any sensitive information remains closed and inaccessible,” he concluded.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, 177 people have been arrested in Crimea this year by the occupying authorities.