Olha Kuryshko spoke to Euronews about repression, forced deportations and the transformation of the peninsula into a Russian military base.
“Russia won’t stop,” Olha Kuryshko told Euronews on her first official visit to Berlin as Ukraine’s envoy for Crimea.
Moscow has used the Ukrainian peninsula, which it seized in 2014, to launch attacks on the country, including its full-scale invasion in February 2022, she explained.
“Crimea is an integral part of Ukraine,” Kuryshko said, noting that “without Crimea, there can be no safety or territorial integrity”.
Although the Trump administration hinted this week that Ukraine might have to cede land to Russia during peace talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy regularly emphasises the importance of liberating all Russian-occupied territories, including Crimea.
Kuryshko, a former advocacy expert at CrimeaSOS, an organisation that highlights the illegality of Russia’s occupation of the peninsula, officially started her new role in January.
As a lawyer, Kuryshko felt compelled to act after Russia occupied Crimea in 2014. “I have a deep responsibility towards those living under occupation. We need to amplify their voices and stand with them in this fight,” she said.
Since Crimea remains under Russian occupation, she cannot travel there or work on-site. “I’ve been working on Crimea for ten years already,” she said.
This experience has allowed her to build connections with activists on the peninsula, making her acutely aware of the security threats they face. “We’re careful when speaking to people,” she added.
People living in Crimea can be prosecuted for any connection to or sign of support for Ukraine – be it a private message on Telegram or wearing blue and yellow, the colours of the Ukrainian flag.
“Our form of communication now consists of helping people leave. To reach Ukrainian-controlled territory, they must travel through Russia and Belarus, which is extremely dangerous,” Kuryshko explained.
During this journey, contact is limited, as personal devices are often inspected by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
System of repression and forced disappearances
To leave and enter occupied Crimea, residents must pass through so-called filtration camps, where they are interrogated and often subjected to severe psychological distress. Their belongings, including smartphones, tablets and laptops, are thoroughly searched.
In the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion, many of these centres were also recorded in other occupied parts of Ukraine.
According to Oksana Filipishyna, an analyst at the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU), one of the key purposes of these camps was to prevent individuals deemed threatening to the Russian state from entering Russian territory.
“In practice, this means identifying former or current Ukrainian military personnel, government officials, civil society activists and pro-Ukrainian patriots,” she told Euronews.
After the screening process, many detainees disappeared into Russian penal colonies or prisons. “No Ukrainian citizen who got there knew if they would make it out alive,” the Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets told Euronews.
There were also reports of humiliating searches, invasive interrogations, extrajudicial killings, torture and a lack of medical care. Anything perceived as pro-Ukrainian or linked to the Ukrainian Armed Forces could have severe consequences.
Filipishyna added that while some captives were eventually released and deported to different regions of Russia, others faced a much darker fate. “The identification of pro-Ukrainian civilians led to their immediate detention. Many were sent to Russian penal facilities.”
Critics say these camps and centres violate international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, which outlines the treatment of civilians in times of war. They add that the Rome Statute categorises these activities as crimes against humanity, and call on the international community to respond to these human rights abuses.
People crossing the border are at the mercy of Russian agents. Leniye Umerova, a 25-year-old Crimean Tatar, was detained by Russian authorities while crossing the Georgian-Russian border on her way to occupied Crimea to care for her father, who had been diagnosed with cancer in December 2022.
Initially accused of violating restricted zone regulations, Umerova was held at a detention centre near Vladikavkaz. She was then abducted by security forces, taken to an unknown location, and later transferred to a facility in Beslan.
After months of fabricated charges and procedural abuses, she was ultimately moved to Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, where she faced false accusations of espionage. In September 2024, Umerova returned to Ukraine as part of a prisoner exchange.
“Capturing and torturing hostages is an act of terrorism under the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism and a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” Lubinets, the Ukrainian ombudsman, told Euronews.
“I have repeatedly appealed to UN member states and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), demanding they react and hold the aggressor country accountable. However, the war crimes continue: Russia kills Ukrainian citizens daily, publicly and cynically, with a sense of absolute impunity,” he added.
Almost 20,000 Ukrainian children deported — some via Crimea
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children have been deported or forcibly relocated.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova over these deportations.
Some Ukrainian children are first taken to camps in places such as Crimea. Kuryshko described the peninsula as “a logistical hub”, with around six known camps where children are held.
“They aren’t there for long, but during that time, their documents are changed. After that, they are taken to Russia and often put up for adoption,” she explained. Once a child’s identity has been altered, Ukrainian officials struggle to track them.
“Over these three years of full-scale war, children grow up, their faces change, and it becomes even harder to find them,” Kuryshko added. Often, the only way for them to return is by contacting their relatives themselves.
Crimea, a Russian military stronghold
According to Russian sources, nearly two million people still reside in Crimea. In December last year, the Ukrainian outlet Euromaidan Press reported that occupied Crimea has undergone a “massive demographic shift”, with around one million new residents – presumably from Russia – relocating to the peninsula.
At the same time, the original population have been pushed out through “systematic repression”. Since 2022, at least 20,000 residents have also been forcibly conscripted into the Russian army.
Kuryshko said that daily life in Crimea is marked by constant fear. “You’re scared all the time, and little things – such as wearing the wrong colours or symbols that could resemble anything Ukrainian – could lead to prosecution,” she explained.
Besides living in fear, Kuryshko detailed other challenges residents face, including medicine shortages and environmental destruction.
“Since the start of the full-scale invasion, doctors have been told to prioritise the military. This means medicine and personnel are mainly available to soldiers, while ordinary citizens often wait months for treatment or medication.”
“Crimea is basically a giant Russian military base,” she added.
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