“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

 In the past four years I, along my foreign counterparts, have witnessed Crimea becoming a territory of fear and lawlessness, where repressions, persecutions, enforced disappearances and killings are a chilling, yet daily routine. “Crimea is bleeding,” publicly and in closed meetings insist Ukrainian authorities, as the evidence on frequent and severe human rights violations is piling up in Russia’s annexed peninsula.

And yet, Crimea seems to slowly be fading into the abyss of our oblivion. There are no clashes, as in Donbas or Luhansk. Occasional TV reports show a poor, yet calm region. Infrastructure projects are taking place – a bridge, connecting the peninsula to the Russian Federation, is being built. “Crimea has returned home,” gush locals to the Western reporters.

Oh, the temptation to give in to this blissful image. Yet the rabbit’s hole is a lot darker than one might anticipate. Once down this way, “Alice” may be arrested because of a Ukrainian flag over her house, a pro-Ukrainian post on social media or even because of her Crimea Tatar nationality. Sometimes “Alice” may simply be a chosen victim by the Russian FSB, or Federal Security Service, in order to intimidate and silence all the others.

There are numerous “Alices” in Crimea. Missing, imprisoned, tortured and killed every day for the reasons unknown or reasons unjustified.

We, the Western societies, seem to condemn human rights violations, but altogether avoid this “unsolvable” issue. Why waste the energy on something you cannot change? As the numbing news reports on Crimea’s “Russian happiness” accumulate, we lose touch of the madness, which is actually dwelling there.

Here lies the inconvenient truth. The rhetoric of “peaceful Crimea” paves way for new atrocities, new annexations and new conflicts. In fact, it paves the way to illegal annexation one day becoming fait accompli. In this case, other ‘referendums’ will follow, along with a sinking feeling of our moral principles slowly going bankrupt.

Where do we go from here, you might ask?

The escape from the rabbit hole is paved with substance-filled non-recognition policy of the annexation (esp. in the United Nations), regularly reviewed and effective sanctions plus advocacy for the human rights defenders in Crimea. Along this path, our support to Ukraine’s reforms is also essential. Is Ukraine’s progress in fighting corruption sufficient? Worth discussing. Has Ukraine made more progress in the past 4 years than in the quarter of the century since 1991? Absolutely.

It was only a fictional Alice who managed to wake up from her dream within a few moments. For the real us it takes time and perseverance. Yet, I believe it is our only option.

Because Crimea is bleeding. Crimea is Ukraine.