The life of Iryna Brunova-Kalisetska changed drastically after the Russian military invasion in Crimea in February 2014. A former non-governmental organization worker who spent her life on Ukraine's peninsula, she realized she had to leave the occupied territory.
“The first wave of emigration from Crimea mostly included those people for whom it was dangerous to stay – because of their political or religious views — and those who didn’t imagine their lives in annexed Crimea and, most of all, wanted to save their Ukrainian identity,” Brunova-Kalisetska explains. An ardent supporter of Ukraine, she came to Kyiv last March to start a new life away from her home in Simferopol.
More than 20,000 residents have left Crimea in the last year, at least half of those are Crimean Tatars, who face persecution along with pro-Ukrainian activists, says Refat Chubarov, the leader of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis.
Recently the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe monitoring mission reported that more than 300 cases of alleged human rights violations were recorded in Crimea during the year of occupation. At least 21 Crimean Tatars have been kidnapped, the organization said.
Crimea is home to more than 2 million people. The takeover by Russian troops without insignia last spring was nearly bloodless, until March 18, when a group of gunmen attacked a Ukrainian army base in Simferopol, killing one officer, Serhiy Kokurin, who became the first victim of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Crimea held an illegal secessionist referendum overseen by gunmen. After the jubilation that followed, Russian President Vladimir Putin formally annexed the territory, prompting many Ukrainian residents to leave or stay and risk persecution.
Olga Skrypnyk, deputy head of the Crimean Field Mission on Human Rights, says local authorities have teamed up with the so-called Crimean self-defense groups, or armed militants, to intimidate citizens. She also suspects that a crackdown on Internet activists and bloggers is coming.
Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov signed a law on Jan. 30 that aims to track the “propaganda” websites, create measures to protect the Internet space of the Crimean Republic from penetration of terrorist and extremist materials.
“It means they will keep an eye on active social media users and civic activists – both pro-Ukrainian and Crimean Tatars,” Skrypnyk explains.
The space for freedom has shrunk in Crimea during the last year. Brunova-Kalisetska, who now works for the Kyiv-based Institute of Social and Political Psychology, follows the events in her native Crimea closely. She says a local government even recently banned a pro-Putin rally in Ekaterininsky Park in Sevastopol because the organizers missed a deadline for applying for permission to hold the rally.
“Even the most pro-Russian Crimeans used to express their opinions openly,” she explains. “Now they have to drop the habit. One can express only pre-approved opinions.”
Despite that, some 82 percent of Crimean citizens support joining Russia, according to a GfK-Ukraine poll released on Feb. 4. At least 21 percent of the respondents aged 18-56, said they are also content with their living standards. But the poll received heavy criticism in mainland Ukraine because it was conducted by phone and people may have been scared to tell the truth.
But Oleksiy Kushnir, a native of Crimea, said that many people who stayed are mostly happy with their lives now. “Yes, there are still lots of political and other problems, but who cares about it? They just want to live peacefully and quietly,” Kushnir, a 19-year-old student of Tavriysky National University from Simferopol, explains. “And well, it’s really quiet here.”
Kushnir is one of those Ukrainians who tried to adjust their lives to the new circumstances. “People have exchanged the hryvnia for rubles, got new passports, the government offices were renamed and prices have gone up – here’s what today’s Crimea looks like,” Kushnir says. But he says his expectations were not high after Russian annexation. “And the Crimean politicians keep promising citizens mountains of gold,” Kushnir explains. He plans to move to Kyiv to continue his studies.
Kushnir has a Russian passport, like other members of his family, but said they have kept their Ukrainian ones as well.
Those who decided to only keep the Ukrainian passports may face trouble finding jobs or getting services in Crimea, Kushnir says. However, he says that no one forces them to surrender their Ukrainian passports.
Brunova-Kalisetska says the share of people who would like Crimea to reintegrate with Ukraine is growing, Brunova-Kalisetska observes: “The number of people who recall ‘the Ukrainian times’ is also growing, but they don’t believe it would be possible to return to Ukraine soon. And well, now public discussion of such an issue is a criminal offense.”
Political analyst Taras Berezovets, also a native of Crimea, believes that Ukraine should become an “attractive state” for Crimeand so they would feel there is a reason to come back. Besides that, the Ukrainian government should be ready to regain Crimea “when there is a chance,” but there won’t be one in the next five years, Berezovets said.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Feb. 23 that the Ukrainian government will regain control over this occupied territory. “It won’t be quick and easy. But it will happen for sure and together we will build a new Crimea,” Poroshenko said.
