As part of the campaign “Being yourself is not a Crime!” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine launches a project #Unbreakable, aimed at support of Kremlin’s prisoners: Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars illegally imprisoned by Russia in the temporarily occupied Crimea and in the Russian Federation. The project includes publications of public letters written by the political prisoners from prisons.
“The support and release of all the Ukrainian political prisoners is among MFA top priorities. We are launching the project #Unbreakable, dedicated to our citizens who have been illegally imprisoned and held in Russian prisons. The main goal of the initiative is to tell the stories of the Kremlin’s prisoners: their experiences and thoughts, dreams and hopes and to draw attention to the systemic reprisals in the occupied Crimea. The project also aims to make the world aware of the invincible spirits of the Kremlin’s prisoners. This is almost the only cure to protect them from torture and inhuman treatment in prisons. “Publicity saves lives” - First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Emine Dzhaparova said.
The campaign launching date is symbolic. Today, Ukraine commemorates the victims of political repressions - our compatriots, ruthlessly tortured and killed by the Soviet totalitarian regime. The Russian Federation revitalized the methods of Soviet regime and launched mass-scale repressive campaigns in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. Today, Russia continues to illegally detain more than 100 Ukrainian citizens for political reasons behind bars in the occupied Crimea and on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Every week we will publish on the MFA website and on our Facebook page, as well as on the resources of diplomatic missions, political prisoner’s letters to share their stories and tell about repressions in the temporarily occupied peninsula.
The first hero of the #Unbreakable project is a citizen journalist Osman Arifmemetov. Prior to his arrest, he broadcasted searches and abductions of Crimean Tatars in the occupied Crimea. Now, he faces up to 20 years of imprisonment on bogus terrorism charges.