An international tribunal has ordered Russia to "immediately" release 24 Ukrainian sailors and three naval ships it seized off Crimea in November

His relocation violates the Geneva Convention

Authorities in the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula have released the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the region after briefly detaining him, a Russian lawyer says

Russia-occupied Crimea’s Kerchensky city court during its hearing refused to release Volodymyr Balukh on parole

A court in Moscow ruled on Wednesday that four Ukrainian sailors seized by Russia last year off the coast of Crimea should be kept in pre-trial detention until April 24

Among them are social activists and Ukrainian sailors, prisoners of war

Volunteers of the InformNapalm international intelligence community have unfolded the flag of Ukraine on the summit of a mountain near in the Laspi Pass

Media reports in Russia say more than 30 houses belonging to Jehovah's Witnesses were searched by FSB officers in the Moscow-annexed Ukrainian region of Crimea

Volodymyr Balukh has suspended a months-long hunger strike pending his expected transfer to a prison in Russia

What’s happening with the Ukrainian peninsula’s economy these days?

How Russia is turning Crimea into a military base by changing its economy and society

According to journalists, the two Ukrainian vessels are now in front of the Kerch Strait Bridge from the Taman peninsula to Russian-occupied Crimea

Who should protect the cultural heritage of Crimea?

Why the question of Russia’s occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula remains, and will remain, open

Kremlin spokesman Dmitriy Peskov said that the Putin office received the letter but refused to comment further.

The Ukrainian Week discussed the characteristics of information warfare in the Crimea, the prospects of civil journalism and the danger of information control over the peninsula with the researcher from Citizen Lab, University of Toronto

How the Kerch bridge built by Russia blocks and threatens the ports in Mariupol and Berdiansk

Director of The Cyborgs, Her Heart and Haytarma, speaks about contemporary Ukrainian film, about propaganda in movies, about what unites Crimean Tatars today, and about Crimea House in Kyiv, which Seitablayev has been running since early 2017

Could Ukraine’s armed forces have prevailed in Crimea?

For Ukrainians incarcerated in the occupied territories and in the Russian Federation itself, things could get much worse in 2018. Only serious international pressure is likely to make Moscow release these political prisoners

Russian law enforcers raided the houses of Muslim Crimean Tatars in Bakhchysarai in the morning of October 11

How the Kremlin propaganda is affecting Ukrainian Muslims

On June 14, it was a year since the last exchange of Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia took place. Nothing has happened in all that time to make a swap more likely

Human rights activists release an analytical report on the violations of the right to peaceful assembly in the occupied Crimea

The Crimean Tatars faced deportation from the peninsula under Stalin in 1944. Today, they are facing a policy of quiet expulsion from their lands

As of the end of March, 44 Ukrainian citizens remained in Russian captivity. What can Ukraine do to free them?

What prevented Kremlin curators from realising the "Crimean scenario" in most regions of South-Eastern Ukraine?

Freeing the Kremlin's prisoners as our main assignment for the year

One of the most proactive lawyers defending Crimean Tatars in courts ends up behind bars

The Kremlin's hybrid aggression against Ukraine: essence, development

As to Crimea, there is no way to count on Russia’s internal forces. So the main source of pressure remains external. That means sanctions

How are Ukraine’s ports changing the way they operate and what are their future prospects?

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks on the human rights situation in Donbas and Crimea, and his further plan regarding these territories

Ukrainian prisoners in Crimea are being transferred to Russia, given Russian passports and punished for rejecting them

In an attempt to understand what Crimea meant and what it means for Ukraine today, to look at important moments in the history of the peninsula and Crimean Tatars, to define the foundation of Crimean Tatar identity, and to analyze the prospects of Crimea’s return to Ukraine and its position after de-occupation, The Ukrainian Week speaks to historian and political scientist Gulnara Bekirova

Shortly before the presentation of his new album Taterrium in April, jazz pianist and composer Useyn Bekirov spoke to The Ukrainian Week about ways to present his native culture in his music, jazz clubs in Ukraine, and the history of Crimean Tatar jazz since Soviet times

How television paralyzes people

Ways to protect Ukrainian cultural and historical heritage in the annexed Crimea and frontline areas

The direction taken by Crimea's economy destroys its self-sufficiency and makes reintegration into Ukraine exceedingly difficult

The interests and prejudices of officials and diplomats from the UN, OSCE, Council of Europe and other international agencies sometimes affect policy decisions more than they should

The roots of moderate Islam of the Crimean Tatars are buried in the history of this people

The Ukrainian Week spoke with Raimonds Vejonis, the newly-elected President of the Republic of Latvia and Minister of Defense when this interview was made, about NATO revival, the "deterrent effect," Putin's unpredictability, and the cost of the conflict in Ukraine to Riga

Ex-US Ambassador to Russia on the “reset policy”, Russia’s “resource curse”, and main threats of Putin’s policy for the West and Ukraine

Why an international strategy to return Crimea is necessary and what implications the militarization of the peninsula will have for the Black Sea and Mediterranean region

The annexation of Crimea from December 2, 2013, through April 4, 2014

Ukrainian authorities have failed to learn their Crimean lessons, leaving the return of it to "children and grandchildren"

How visible Crimea is a year after annexation internationally, how seriously the threat of its militarization is seen in the West, and why Barack Obama is reluctant to provide effective support to Ukraine

The rationale behind transferring the peninsula to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954

Crimea’s real economy will shrink further if the Russian occupation continues. Those employed in it will lose income and jobs

Some experts feel that the war in the Donbas was started to distract attention from the annexation of Crimea and force its recognition. If this is the case, the goal has almost been achieved. Indeed, when the military and civilians are dying, who can be bothered with Crimea where everything seems to be relatively quiet? However, that quietness is deceptive.

The Bulgarians, Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Karaites, Crimean Tatars, Krymchaks, Ukrainians, Russians, Romani – these are just the most prominent of the ethnic groups that populated the peninsula over the last 150 years

The Kremlin will try to secure Crimea for itself, so in 2015, it will continue to intensify the militarisation of this Ukrainian region.

The Ukrainian Week speaks to the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights about his recent visit to Crimea, the life of Crimean Tatars in the annexed peninsula, and Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russia

Without “tourists” from Russia, the separatist movement in Kharkiv has quickly marginalised. If not for pro-Russian sympathies of the local authorities, it would hardly pose any threat at all

The Ukrainian Week talked to Damon Wilson, executive vice-president of The Atlantic Council, about the establishment of the pro-Ukrainian community in the world, the US-Russia relations after the annexation of Crimea, the new Ukrainian military and the likelihood of NATO MAP for Ukraine

The Ukrainian Week talks to Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks about the flow of IDPs from Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, ways for the government to deal with the problem Ukraine has never faced before, and about the hard lesson on integration of minorities Russia’s neighbours had to learn

Live reports for foreign TV are much like navigating a minefield of alien stereotypes, alien influences, alien prejudices and alien interests. Things are further complicated by the spiteful foreign language that just keeps picking all the wrong words out of memory, as you feverishly fish for the right ones.

The ability to travel or foreign channels on cable TV are failing to safeguard homo post-sovieticus from propaganda of hatred

Russian leaders are certain their country will easily weather Western sanctions. Business disagrees

Human rights advocates and international experts are alarmed at growing xenophobia in Crimea and separatist-controlled territories

On June 2, the local “self-defence” kidnapped editor and journalist Serhiy Mokrushyn and director Vladlen Melnykov, both from the Center of Journalist Investigation, in Simferopol, Crimea

The Ukrainian Week talks to Peter Pomerantsev, British television producer and non-fiction writer who spent nine years in Russia, on Russian state propaganda, new methods of informational war and how Ukraine should defend itself

Serhiy Aksionov, the self-proclaimed Crimean Premier, bans mass events on the territory of the annexed Crimea through June 6. The copy of his decree was posted on his Facebook page

Museums holding over 917,000 exhibits are the price of Ukraine’s cultural loss in Crimea. While museum workers there try to adapt to the new circumstances, Ukraine is looking for ways to keep valuable objects

Andriy Senchenko, Acting Chief of Staff, suggested that terrorist attacks could take place on May 9 after the closed meeting of the National Security and Defence Council with chiefs of security authorities on May 6

Astrid Thors, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, on Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians as national minorities in the annexed Crimea, and necessary changes in legislation.

The “referendum” in Crimea revealed Vladimir Putin’s partners in the EU. Most are minority radical parties which, according to his design, have to undermine the EU’s already quite unwieldy system from the inside with Moscow’s support

Said Ismagilov, the Mufti of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Ukraine Ummah: “The status of Muslims here is far better than in Russia”

Russian aggression in Crimea reveals interesting aspects of using criminal groups in politics

Ex-premier of Crimea speaks about a fatal four-day procrastination following Russia’s invasion, attempts to bribe Crimean Tatars and reasons why the leaders of Crimea’s enforcement authorities defected to the Russians

Russian military aggression has recently become a constant threat, while the Western powers are failing to fulfil the security guarantees they extended to Ukraine under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. The issue of nuclear or other similarly effective weapons with which to defend Ukraine’s borders is again high on the agenda

For a quarter of a century now, Russia has the dubious distinction of being the biggest provocateur and supporter of separatist projects in the neighbouring countries, which mars its prospects.

The anamnesis of Ukraine’s non-nuclear status

The outcome of the so-called referendum in Crimea and “the illegal annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation therefore have no legal effect and are not recognised by the Council of Europe”, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) stated on Wednesday, April,9th, in an resolution adopted at the end of an urgent debate.

Ukraine itself must spearhead efforts to counteract Russian aggression. Only then can other countries be expected to help. Disregard for the motivation behind Russia’s policy and a failure to understand Russia’s geopolitical goals are the fundamental reasons why the Ukrainian government is so irresponsible in security issues and the West so helpless in counteracting Russia’s expansion.

Edward Lucas: “The new Cold War has been about the use of Russian money to divide the weak of the West and also the use of the energy weapon”

By plunging Russia into a full-scale confrontation with the West to boost his own popularity ratings Vladimir Putin may be preparing his country for another sobering shock from the defeat in a conflict with the entire world

Ever more Belarusians are imagining how the Crimean scenario would look in their own country – they don’t like it.

Russian billionaire and close Putin ally Gennady Timchenko sold stake in oil trading firm Gunvor a day before featuring on a blacklist of Russians sanctioned in the US.

Brussels drafts tougher sanctions for new battle plan against Moscow, however the biggest EU countries split over the tactics of the new campaign, The Guardian reports.

Eastern Ukraine is following in the footsteps of Western Ukraine, but with a considerable delay, natural and historical complications

The Ukrainian Navy in the Crimea has long traditions. In 1771, the Cossacks jointly with the Russian army and with the support of Zaporizhzhian Cossack boats overcame the short-lived resistance of the Turks and Tatars and conquered the peninsula. The tsarist Black Sea fleet was built primarily in the shipyards of Mykolaiv and Kherson, and many Ukrainians were its admirals, officers and seamen. In 1917-18, part of the fleet was Ukrainianized and pledged allegiance to the Central Rada.

The post-Soviet world order was far from perfect, but Vladimir Putin’s idea for replacing it is much worse, The Economist reports.

How pro-Russian forces are trying to fill the emptiness created by the fall of Yanukovych

How Ukraine should tackle lustration, skeletons in the closets of its new government and tools that could help it not lose the war

The Ukrainian Week talks to Volodymyr Ohryzko, the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2007–2009, about what Ukraine can do if the guarantors under the Budapest Memorandum it signed in 1994 in exchange for giving up its strategic nuclear weapons arsenal, the third largest in the world, fail to meet their commitments

Viktor Chumak, MP, Head of the Parliamentary Committee for Fighting Corruption and Organized Crime and Major General of Justice, who served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Border Service for over 20 years, talks to The Ukrainian Week about Ukraine’s defence capability, ways to localize Russian aggression and protection of Ukraine’s eastern borders

Separatists exploit Kyiv’s weak stance on Crimea’s indigenous population

Mykola Melnyk, ex-First Deputy Head of Military Intelligence and a founder of the National Guard, comments on Ukraine's defence capacity and efforts of the previous defence ministers to destroy the Ukrainian army

Ex-Defence Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko comments on Russia's aggression, Ukraine's response to it and NATO

Over the past days and weeks, on a quick look at Russian TV channels (I have one even in my hotel at Strasbourg not to relax from the disturbing complexities of our life in the EU and in the vicinity – especially after comparison of Russian TV with BBC News or French TV) it was difficult to get rid of a déjà vu feeling. Every piece of information about Ukraine there is strikingly and frighteningly similar to what I had long been listening immediately after 13 January 1991 when the Soviet troops killed fourteen peaceful civilians in Vilnius.

The last week, the Crimea, which had been watching the events unfolding in Kyiv with some aloofness, suddenly erupted. People took to squares with radically different slogans. Some openly stated their desire to live in Russia, while others categorically opposed separation. Against this backdrop, other, equally serious processes were taking place, potentially defining what the future authorities in the Crimea will look like

Federalization of Ukraine in the past: who, how, when and with what consequences

The train of history is long gone, and the nostalgia of various “Russian blocs” is pointless, because the Crimea is not a “native Russian land”

As William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, held crisis talks with Ukraine’s new leaders in Kyiv at the weekend, London announced that it was pulling out of preparatory talks on the Sochi G8 summit, and warned President Putin that Russia’s actions could lead to war

Thousands of pro-Russia and pro-Ukraine demonstrators duelled in Crimea’s capital on Wednesday, heightening concerns about unrest in the region following the change in government in Kiev, Financial Times reports.

Ukraine’s Security Service claims that it will apply tough measures to stop threats to territorial integrity of Ukraine and will hold everyone engaged in that liable, it says in a statement

On May 17, Haytarma, a film directed by Akhtem Seytablayev, premiered with a scandal in Simferopol. Seytablayev was first to show the tragic mass deportation of Crimean Tatars under Stalin’s 1944 order on the big screen.

On May 17, a scandal broke out in Simferopol, Crimea, when Haytarma, the first feature film showing the tragic history of mass deportations of Crimean Tatars in 1944, premiered in a local movie theatre.

As those in power fuel ethnic and religious conflicts in Crimea, they are helping radical Islam spread over the peninsula and trigger destabilization