If the Security Service’s search of the offices of Yandex Ukraine on May 29 was supposed to convince people that the sanctions imposed upon the company two weeks ago were justified, the aim was not achieved.

The trial begins on May 31 of Crimean Tatar leader Ilmi Umerov who could face a 5-year prison sentence for saying that Russia must leave Crimea and Donbas. This is the second such trial in Russian-occupied Crimea where Ukrainian journalist Mykola Semena is facing essentially identical charges.

President Poroshenko’s Decree blocking VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and other Russian-based social media, TV channels, etc. provoked a torrent of angry accusations of censorship from some and the question why it had taken so long from others

A Ukrainian has received a suspended sentence under a highly controversial ‘decommunization’ law, slammed by the Council of Europe’s legal experts, for photos and other material with communist symbols posted on Facebook

An SBU spokesperson has dismissed one aspect of a journalist investigation into the killing in July 2016 of Kyiv-based Belarusian journalist Pavel Sheremet, while leaving the key questions raised by the disturbing investigation unanswered

An important source of proof of Russia’s undeclared war against Ukraine could be blocked if a plan reportedly underway is implemented. This is only one of the grounds of concern over plans to block two Russian-based social networks - VKontakte [VK] and Odnoklassniki [OK].

It was unfortunately only the latest hearing that got cancelled on World Press Freedom Day, not the insane criminal charges that Russia has brought against Crimean journalist Mykola Semena for exercising freedom of speech

PEN America’s honouring of Ukrainian filmmaker and political prisoner Oleg Sentsov at its 2017 PEN Literary Gala would have been a very special event under any circumstances. It was made particularly poignant by the letter from Oleg that was heard for the first time, together with a powerful address from his cousin Natalya Kaplan who accepted the award on his behalf.

Suleiman Kadyrov has become the latest Ukrainian to be added to Russia’s ‘List of Terrorists and Extremists’ for openly calling Crimea part of Ukraine. The 54-year-old retired policeman faces a 5-year prison sentence for what Russia is calling ‘public calls to activities aimed at violating Russia’s territorial integrity’

Ukrainian activist Ihor Movenko is facing criminal prosecution in Russian-occupied Crimea for so-called ‘extremism’, 7 months after a vicious attack on the 39-year-old from Sevastopol resulted in administrative charges against the victim, and no criminal investigation against the man who attacked him.

Incredibly, some Ukrainian websites have copy-pasted Russian propaganda media, including a website closely linked with the defence ministry, which deliberately distorted the findings of a new Bellingcat investigation

Russia is claiming that Mykola Semena sought to violate Russia’s territorial integrity in a text opposing Russian annexation, although it has never withdrawn from international conventions which recognize Crimea as Ukrainian

Four members of the Ukrainian Cultural Centre have faced FSB interrogation in a move that seems clearly aimed at intimidation and at labelling any pro-Ukrainian activities, however unpolitical, as ‘extremist’. Another activist is facing possible criminal charges for a photo on her social network page with a Ukrainian flag.

The first hearing into Russia’s trial in occupied Crimea of journalist Mykola Semena ended shortly after beginning on Monday, March 20, with the prosecution calling the defence ‘capricious’ and their demand for open hearings ‘contempt of court’.

Nariman Dzhelyal, First Deputy Head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, or representative assembly has faced interrogation in Russia’s so-called ‘Centre for Countering Extremism’, with the move a menacing warning of what could follow. Russia is resurrecting the worst traditions of Soviet times, and a denunciation was given as pretext for the summons.

Exactly three years after Russian soldiers with machine guns, but no insignia seized control in Crimea, a Ukrainian journalist has gone on trial, accused of ‘public calls to violate Russian territorial integrity’ for an article in which he called this occupation and expressed the wish that it would end

The Internet media in the self-proclaimed ‘Donbas and Luhansk people’s republics’ [DNR, LNR] have virtually nothing but praise for Russia and, of course, themselves, while finding nothing positive to say about areas under Ukrainian government control

Russia is increasingly using citizenship as one of its weapons against dissent and civic activism in occupied Crimea. It has claimed that imprisoned Crimean filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and civic activist Oleksandr Kolchenko ‘automatically’ became Russian citizens as its excuse for not returning the two Ukrainian political prisoners, yet uses lack of Russian citizenship in other cases to remove people from their homeland.

The Russian media has widely reported plans to publish “the first Ukrainian-language newspaper in Crimea”. ‘First’ it is not, but it will be the only paper in Ukrainian since Russia’s invasion and occupation of Crimea. It may be used merely for propaganda purposes, however the ‘Ukrainian society’ supposedly behind the initiative was formed by the occupation government and has an openly anti-Kyiv position

An apparently ‘Ukrainian’ website often quoted in the Russian media has a St. Petersburg address and is probably one of the ‘troll factory’ enterprises owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a millionaire often referred to as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s favourite chef.