MENU
Documenting
war crimes in Ukraine

The Tribunal for Putin (T4P) global initiative was set up in response to the all-out war launched by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022.

Similar articles

Finland refuses to extradite Russian neo-Nazi Rusich fighter to Ukraine to face war crimes trialUkrainian political prisoner hospitalized after 9 years of Russian brutal torment Russia is holding around four thousand Ukrainian civilians prisoner, torturing most of themChilling déjà vu as Russia uses Crimean SMERSH to hunt down supporters of Ukraine in occupied Crimea Russia claims defending Ukraine is ‘international terrorism’ and sentences abducted Kherson man to 12 yearsRussian invaders vandalize and plunder remembrance of Holodomor in occupied Ukraine Chilling silence after 22-year-old Crimean Tatar abducted by Russian FSB and vanishesRussian justice: murderers pardoned for killing Ukrainians, Crimean Tatas sentenced to 17 years for defending political prisoners European Broadcasting Union study exposes “brutal Russification” in Russian-occupied Ukraine Ukrainian academic abducted from occupied Kherson, tortured and sentenced to 12 years in Russia on nonsensical ‘spying’ charges Occupied Sievierodonetsk begins second winter in bombed homes without heating except on Russian propaganda TVRussia tries to forcibly mobilize clergy in final move to drive Orthodox Church of Ukraine out of occupied Crimea International Criminal Court arrest warrants needed over Russia's mass killing, torture and ‘trials’ of Ukrainian POWs Russia begins ‘inventory’ to steal Ukrainians’ homes in occupied Mariupol Russia passes additional sentence to ensure Ukrainian opponent of Crimea occupation doesn’t leave prison aliveUkraine to try ex-Berkut officers accused of gunning down Euromaidan activists Why banning the Russian-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church “would create problems, not remove them”Ukraine’s courts impose prison sentences for reposting or even ‘liking’ social media posts that support Russian aggressionCourt in Russia reduces charge against Crimean Tatar political prisoner but retains appalling sentence ‘He called to set Kremlin on fire,’ — theater director was accused of terrorism for a chewing gum wrapper

Crimean Tatar veteran activist who “fed Maidan” has died in occupied Crimea

18.03.2020   
Halya Coynash
Mustafa Osmanov was implacably opposed to Russia’s occupation of his homeland and, together with his son, had faced trouble for this stand, but he is probably most fondly remembered throughout Ukraine for the special role he played during the Maidan protests in the winter of 2013/14.

Mustafa Osmanov, veteran of the Crimean Tatar national movement and of Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity (Euromaidan) died in occupied Crimea on 13 March after a heart attack. He was implacably opposed to Russia’s occupation of his homeland and, together with his son, had faced persecution for this stand, but he is probably most fondly remembered throughout Ukraine for the special role he played during the Maidan protests in the winter of 2013/14. 

Appalled by the vicious attack on young Maidan activists in the early hours of 30 November 2013, Osmanov, understood that he could not look the other way.  A number of members of his family, colleagues and neighbours from his village, including an ethnic Russian, joined him, while others saw the group off, providing them with food items for their very special task.  Osmanov, a businessman who owned several restaurants and hotels, took some 20 kilograms of meat, and 20 of rice, together with a massive wok-like pot, and set to preparing hot pilaf for Maidan activists standing in freezing temperatures.  He and his helpers ‘fed’ around 250 people each day on Maidan. 

Osmanov had taken part in the Crimean Tatar national movement from the 1980s, and made no secret of his opposition to Russia’s invasion of Crimea.

He, his wife and their son, Edem, were among around five thousand Crimean Tatars who came on 3 May 2014 to the Armyansk administrative border crossing to meet veteran Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev whom Russia had just banned from his homeland.  They were confronted by large contingents of Russian riot police and military, and given the danger of bloodshed, Mustafa Dzhemilev decided to return to Kyiv.   

Recalling that day, in an interview to Krym.Realii, Osmanov said he had been stunned by the number of masked men in military uniform without insignia were waiting there for them. The lack of insignia, he said, meant that Russia could claim (as it tried to do about its invasion of Crimea), that these were not Russian military men.  Some of those present tried to explain to these men that this was Ukrainian territory and that they had the right to move around without obstruction. Asked what impelled people to come to meet Mustafa Dzhemilev, Osmanov said: “We were sure that we were in the right.  We had not broken any law and demanded that the other side also observe the laws of our country.”

Edem Osmanov was one of five Crimean Tatars who faced trumped-up criminal charges over the events on 3 May 2014, and on 7 December 2015, received a one-year suspended sentence.

On 7 September 2014, the occupation regime carried out a search of the Osmanov home on an obviously absurd pretext.  Edem Osmanov said that the search could have been because of the family’s clear stand.  He and his brother drove about, he added, with a Ukrainian flag, and there was a Crimean Tatar flag hanging in their courtyard.

Mustafa Osmanov can be heard explaining here how appalled he was at the attack on young students on Maidan, how he had known he must react and how he did, here  https://youtube.com/watch?v=k8vyHmDw3nU.

Allah rahmet eylesin         

Світла пам’ять       Eternal memory  

 

 Share this