Russian political leaders and the occupation administration under its control in Crimea are trying to oust pro-Ukrainian people from the peninsula with repressive measures and to populate the peninsula with people from other regions of the Russian Federation, said Crimea Prosecutor Ihor Ponochovny.
“The ultimate goal of crimes and harassment against civilians on the peninsula, which are undertaken by representatives of the Russian Federation and the occupation administration in Crimea, is to completely oust any pro-Ukrainian people from Crimea and replace them with Russians,” he said at a press conference on Jan. 31.
He said the actions are aimed at changing the demographic composition of the peninsula.
Crimea’s Prosecutor’s Office sent a seventh letter to the International Criminal Court (ICC). According to the report, “all the materials submitted on the actions of the occupation administration and the leadership of the Russian Federation will become the basis for starting an investigation by ICC, which may start as early as 2020.”
Earlier on Jan. 31, the lawyer of the human rights organization Regional Center for Human Rights Vitaliy Nabukhotny said the Crimea PGO together with the Regional Center for Human Rights had sent the seventh message to the ICC, which assigns responsibility to Russia for displacing persons from the peninsula.
“As of the end of 2019, the number of officially registered internally displaced persons from Crimea already exceeded 42,895. According to unofficial data from human rights organizations, the number of such people can be as high as 100,000,” he added.
