Crimean News of the Week (VIDEO)

The top 16 main Crimean news stories for the week have been collected for you by the UA:SOUTH journalist Muslim Umyerov

1. The partisan movement "Atesh" showed Russian planes, their number, and the defense scheme of the airfield "Saki".

This is reported by "Atesh" on its Telegram channel.

"The Russians have not come to any conclusions and are not hiding their machinery in any way. Soon we will have the anniversary of “cotton” at this airfield. It's time to celebrate," the message says.

The Atesh military-guerrilla movement, which declared that the temporarily occupied Sevastopol is its main base, monitors the equipment of the Russian military.

2. The Russians faked the data of the movement of merchant ships to depict the 65-kilometer  "Z" symbol of the Russian invaders in the Black Sea. Real transponders are disabled - this increases the risk of an accidental accident.

The British Ministry of Defense reports this on Twitter with reference to British intelligence. "Geollect's analysis shows that since May 14, 2023, the data of the automatic identification system of commercial vessels has been remotely tampered with," the report said.

This system is used to track ships and ensure security. According to intelligence, merchant ships are allegedly heading on a course in the form of a letter "Z" at 102 knots (188 km/h) - this further indicates that the data was forged. As the report suggests, this was done to strengthen the morale of Russian citizens on the eve of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

"Despite Russia's virtual information operations in the Black Sea, its physical fleet remains vulnerable. On May 24, 2023, the reconnaissance ship "Ivan Khurs" was probably attacked," British intelligence said.

3. The occupiers are taking military secret documentation and encryption equipment out of Crimea.

This was reported by the Center of National Resistance. At the beginning of May, the Russians took military documentation from the temporarily occupied Crimea to the territory of the Russian Federation. They also took encryption equipment from the military administration of the Russian Armed Forces. This is the message of the Center of National Resistance.

4. The Russian occupiers are taking away from the temporarily occupied Crimea through the Kerch Bridge documents that confirm their illegal activities and which may be valuable for the International Tribunal. They also continue to take their families from the peninsula to the territory of the Russian Federation.

Natalya Humenyuk, head of the joint press center of the "South" operational command, announced this on the Espresso.tv channel.

5. The occupiers and collaborators will sell off real estate in Crimea, increase pressure against Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars on the peninsula, and strengthen themselves in the north of Crimea. Andrii Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, told about this on the air of the Yedyny Novyny telethon.
6. The occupying authorities of Crimea and Sevastopol report the alleged neutralization of at least eight drones by means of Radio Electronic Combat and the downing of two more drones by the forces of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation during the night of May 25.

Thus, the self-proclaimed governor of Sevastopol, Mykhailo Razvozhaev, wrote on his Telegram channel that several drones were allegedly jammed and planted by EW devices in the city.

At the same time, in the Kacha area, the forces of the Black Sea Front of the Russian Federation allegedly shot down two more UAVs with small arms. In addition, as Serhiy Aksyonov, the occupation head of Crimea, reported on Telegram, in various areas of the peninsula, EW devices allegedly jammed and planted several drones. According to Aksyonov, no one was injured.

7. On May 24, two fires broke out under occupied Simferopol.

This was reported by the occupying Ministry of Emergency Situations in Crimea in a commentary by RIA "Novosti Krym". So, in the Simferopol district, an abandoned building caught fire in the village of Badana (Perovo). In the same place, an abandoned building, which previously housed the "Southern" poultry farm on Lenin Street, burned down. This is the second fire in the building this spring.

8. On May 22, explosions rang out in occupied Sevastopol

The occupying authorities of the city called it "training firings" of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation. The occupying governor of Sevastopol, Mykhailo Razvozhaev, announced this on his Telegram channel. Also, Razvozhaev once again noted that "everything is calm" in Sevastopol.

In the comments to his post, local residents wrote that they heard the explosions not only from the side of the Northern Pier but also near Kamysova Bay.

9. Military expert Roman Svitan believes that the calibers that Russia constantly brings to Crimea to destroy Ukraine by rail should be fired at when they are just starting to cross the so-called Crimean bridge.

"A couple of times a month, Calibers go by train. They are brought to the bays of Sevastopol for loading ships. It is very important to destroy this thread, at least to try to destroy it. Ideally would be to aim directly at these Calibers. Watch when they leave the warehouses on Taman, and cross the Crimean bridge. That is why it is necessary to destroy the Crimean bridge, so as not to catch them near Sevastopol. Then they go through Dzhankoy, so they need to destroy the Dzhankoy node and go to Sevastopol. It is here that our boys try to catch them, either by destroying the railway tracks or by destroying the train depots with Calibers. This is one of the options for reducing the number of missiles that the Russians fire at us." - said the expert

10. Journalist and military expert Andriy Piontkovsky believes that American F-16 fighter jets will be used to take occupied Crimea.

“Macron said that the French will supply SCALP missiles, which are the same as Storm Shadow. Also joint French-English development, but only called differently. Our friends won a complete victory. I have been saying since December that Storm Shadow will definitely be in Ukraine. I also think that there will be no need to wait for the F-16 fighters, even for three or four months. At the decisive moment of the battle for Crimea, if they are needed, they will appear in the sky of Ukraine, controlled by Ukrainian pilots who have been preparing for a long time. - says Piontkovsky

11. The missing Crimean Tatar activist Ruslan Lyumanov was released from the building of the occupying FSB in Crimea.

This is confirmed by human rights defender Lutfie Zudiyeva. Also, the activist's wife, Evelina Lyumanova, informed "Crimean Solidarity" that her husband told her in a telephone conversation that he was returning home. As the chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Refat Chubarov wrote on his Facebook page, Lyumanov was kidnapped by the FSB of the Russian Federation, which held him forcibly until the evening of May 25, for more than a day.

12. Seven years ago, Ervin Ibragimov was kidnapped in occupied Bakhchisarai.

On May 24, 2016, Ervin Ibragimov, a 30-year-old activist, a member of the executive committee of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars, who was a deputy of the Bakhchisarai City Council before the occupation, was kidnapped by unknown persons near his home.

Since then, nothing is known about his fate. The moment of the crime was then caught on video surveillance cameras. He was dragged into a car by people in the uniform of the patrol police and taken through a forest lane towards the Bakhchisarai reservoir. In 2021, during the court session of the occupation court in the city of Armyansk on the so-called "Mustafa Dzhemilev case", the administration announced the response, that was received back in December 2020. According to this, the case of Ibrahimov's abduction was being investigated by the main investigative committee of the Russian Federation for Crimea However, since September 2017, the case has been suspended on the grounds that the person to be charged in this case has not been identified.

The Crimean human rights group believes that the abduction was committed by the Russian authorities or by paramilitary groups controlled by them.

13. Aziz Umerov, the brother of the illegally imprisoned Leniye Umerova, appealed to the European parliamentarians in Brussels with a call to release all illegally detained citizens of Ukraine and to develop mechanisms for the release of civilian prisoners held by the Russian Federation
14. The occupiers in Crimea filed two more cases of administrative violations against the veteran of the Crimean Tatar national movement and human rights defender Abdureshit Dzhepparov for "discrediting the Russian army" and "abusing freedom of information."

"Crimean Solidarity" writes about this. The reason for the accusations is allegedly the administration of the page of the "Qirim Gayesi" ("Crimean Idea") initiative on Facebook, which highlights violations of international humanitarian law in Crimea and operational reports on human rights violations on the territory of the peninsula. The court summons was handed to the human rights defender after serving 12 days of administrative arrest in the previous administrative case. On June 13 and July 14, 2023, the occupying Kyiv District Court of Simferopol will consider new administrative protocols.

15. The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted amendments to the law on leaving the territory of Russia regarding the need for conscripts to hand over their foreign passports to the Navy or MFC for safekeeping.

According to the amendments, the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation will have to be handed over to conscripts within five days of the decision on conscription. It will be returned only after the end of the service. If the relevant document is not submitted without a good reason, the passport will be declared invalid. Therefore, conscripts will still not be able to use this passport until the end of their service. According to Russian human rights defenders, the relevant decision will not affect this year's autumn draft in Russia. It will enter into force 180 days after its official publication.

16. For the complete transition of the education system to the Ukrainian language in Crimea after liberation from the Russian occupation, Ukraine plans to introduce a transition period for the Ukrainization of education.

This was announced by Stepan Zolotar, Head of the Department for Deoccupation and Reintegration of the ARC of the Presidential Representation in the ARC, during the round table "Deoccupation and Reintegration of Crimea: Challenges in the Field of Education".