Crimean prosecutors urge residents to report Russian war crimes

The Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and the Representation of the President of Ukraine in the autonomy presented the first informational video of the project "War Crimes in Crimea," which concerns forced deportation, and appeals to Crimeans to tell their story of war crimes by the Russian Federation and protect their rights.

At a briefing on Wednesday in Kyiv, the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in Crimea, Olha Kuryshko, said that the first video with explanations of where and how to contact a person who was forcibly deported from the peninsula is the beginning of a large-scale project, the purpose of which is to tell people who want to give evidence about what constitutes a war crime.

"A person who is a victim may not know about the violation against them. Especially when we are talking about such a case as the illegal seizure of property in the temporarily occupied territory," she said.

According to Kuryshko, this project is a joint decision of public organizations, the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the Presidential Representation in Crimea.

"Many people do not realize that they are victims. Therefore, the idea arose to explain to people in simple words that they can be victims of war crimes, to protect their rights," - explained in turn the First Deputy Prosecutor of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol Vitaliy Sekretar.

"We all have a common goal - to punish those who daily abuse the population. We are trying to reach people so that they come to us and tell their story, and we would be able to protect them through legal mechanisms," Sekretar said.

He said that in the future, the project will include videos related to the destruction and appropriation of property, forced passporting, conscription and mobilizations, etc.

When asked how many people were deported from Crimea, he noted that there are currently 12,000 clearly identified individuals. "When we began investigating the methods of the Russian Federation's deportation of the population from Crimea, we found that about 12,000 court decisions are based on proven facts issued by the occupation authorities," he explained.

"According to official data, we have about 55,000 people who have received the status of IDPs from Crimea... About 28,000 people have refused this status. Many people have left for the territory of third countries," he said.

Speaking about the security component of the people who will give evidence, he noted that only the prosecutor and the investigator will have access to the materials of the criminal proceedings. According to the first deputy prosecutor of the autonomy, there is a law that provides for the protection of persons participating in the process with the possibility of changing their personal data, and the International Criminal Court, to which the materials are also provided, does not have personal data about the victims themselves.

"We are ready for any number of applications... We are counting, first of all, on people who have already been expelled, who have been deported. That is, these are those who currently live on the mainland of Ukraine, people who live abroad," Sekretar said.