DISINFO: Ukraine does not allow international human rights defenders to annexed Crimea
SUMMARY
International human rights organisations cannot access the Crimea due to the destructive policies of the Ukrainian government. For its part, Russia provides full and unrestricted access to international observers on the peninsula – the Kremlin does not violate the rights of Crimeans, unlike the countries of the European Union, which imposed anti-Crimean sanctions.
RESPONSE
Russia has been systematically manipulating the topic of access of any international organisations to the annexed Crimea for five years now. The Kremlin declares its readiness to let observers to the peninsula, but on one condition: the mission must go to the Crimea through Russia. That is, Russia is forcing international organisations to violate the laws of Ukraine and get to the peninsula through non-existent checkpoints. Thus, Russia wants to try to legalise the occupation of the Ukrainian Peninsula. Russia is not interested in the access of observers to the Crimea for one more reason. Any independent observers on the peninsula will be able to make an objective assessment of what is happening in Crimea, the Russian leadership will not be able to influence their reports. In this way, the wider international community can find out what the state of Ukrainian political prisoners really is in Crimea. For example, Russia has repeatedly refused to allow observers from the International Committee of the Red Cross into the occupied Ukrainian territories.