Ukraine will fall silent at 12.00 p.m. on 18 May in memory of the victims of the Deportation of the entire Crimean Tatar people from their homeland. This is no formal remembrance of a tragedy somewhere back in the distant past. 75 years after Stalin’s monstrous act of genocide, many Crimean Tatars are once again in forced exile, others imprisoned in occupied Crimea or Russia for their civic activism or simply for their faith. Even remembrance in groups has been effectively banned since immediately after Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea five years ago.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
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Halya Coynash: Russian persecution mounts in Crimea before Deportation Anniversary
A young woman lights candles spelling out 'No genocide’ on Kyiv's Independence Square on May 18, 2017. It was part of a commemoration of Joseph Stalin's forced deportation in 1944 of Crimean Tatars.
