Russia has illegally taken the 23 Crimean Solidarity activists arrested on 27 and 28 March from occupied Crimea, without giving the men a chance to even contact their families

Russia has unleashed a new wave of terror on occupied Crimea, with the aim very clearly being to intimidate Crimean Tatars into silence or drive them, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the 1944 Deportation, from their homeland.

20 men are now in custody, with that number set to rise, after the latest and most flagrant, of a series of attacks on Crimean Solidarity clearly aimed at intimidating Crimean Tatars and forcing them into silence about the mounting repression under Russian occupation

Russia’s FSB have brought more persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses to occupied Crimea with at least six armed searches on 20 March and subsequent detention

The FSB have suddenly changed the indictment against more Crimean Tatar political prisoners arrested for their faith and involvement in the Crimean Solidarity civic initiative

Archbishop Klyment, Head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Russian-occupied Crimea was detained on Sunday morning, 3 March, and held in custody till late evening, facing two separate charges of breath-taking cynicism

There are grounds for suspecting that the added charge of ‘planning to violently seize power’ is punishment for refusal to ‘cooperate’ with the investigators. 

After the latest armed searches and arrests in Russian-occupied Crimea, three more Crimean Tatars have joined Russia’s long list of Ukrainian political prisoners and five children have been left without their fathers, bringing the number of Russia’s smallest Crimean victims to well over 100

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine has been ordered to vacate the Cathedral of Vladimir and Olga in occupied Simferopol by the beginning of March, with this likely to lead to eight parishes in rural areas also being forced to close

It is no accident that Russia’s censor has begun a new campaign to stifle information about human rights violations in occupied Crimea by trying to force YouTube to delete material about imprisoned human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku and the arrests on 11 February 2016. There is a lot that the FSB, and especially Alexander Kompaneitsev, a notorious Ukrainian turncoat, should want to hide.

Since Larysa Holnyk refused to provide a corrupt court ruling and reported the offer, she has faced harassment, prolonged failure to grant her indefinite tenure and a savage attack

A Russian court in Oryol has sentenced Dennis Christensen to six years’ imprisonment for practising his faith

Vladimir Putin has stated that Russia will “do everything to defend” the rights of believers in Ukraine.  His words, coming almost five years after Moscow began  ‘defending’ the rights of Russians and Russian-believers in both Crimea and Donbas, felt more like a threat than a promise.

A court in Russian-occupied Crimea has convicted four men of involvement in a peaceful movement which is totally legal in Ukraine, but which Russia has decided to label ‘extremist’

The de facto prosecutor in Russian-occupied Crimea has demanded one real five-year prison term and three suspended sentences in its prosecution of four Crimean Muslims for membership of the entirely peaceful and apolitical Tablighi Jamaat missionary movement

While Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses are most in danger, believers of other faiths have also faced prosecution for worshiping ’in the wrong place’ or similar

Sergey Kosyak, Ukrainian pastor, volunteer and one of the coordinators of the Donetsk Prayer Marathon decided to publish an important book chronicling resistance to Russia’s aggression.

Two days after the UN General Assembly condemned Russia for violations of human rights in Crimea, a Russian court has sentenced four recognized Crimean Tatar political prisoners to terms of imprisonment from 9 to 17 years

Russia’s second ‘Hizb ut-Tahrir trial’ of Crimean Tatars is drawing to an end with heavy sentences likely despite absurd charges and proof only that all four recognized political prisoners are devout Muslims

Moscow’s rage at the granting of autocephaly or independent status to a united Ukrainian Orthodox Church is likely to find an outlet in occupied Crimea where the Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate has been under pressure since Russia’s annexation