Twelve years ago, an event took place in Ukrainian Crimea that demonstrated our people’s struggle for their statehood, independence, and dignity.

On February 26, 2014, in Simferopol, thousands of Ukrainian citizens - Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, and representatives of other national communities - gathered at a rally in support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

This happened amid the aggressive war already launched by the Russian Federation against our state, the first stage of which was the temporary occupation of the Crimean Peninsula. On that day, the residents of Crimea spoke out against aggression, taking to a peaceful protest despite the direct threat posed by Russian military forces, which were already seizing administrative buildings and blocking Ukrainian military units across the peninsula.

At that moment, the international community did not respond decisively enough to the Kremlin’s actions and failed to take real steps to prevent the temporary occupation of the peninsula. Feeling impunity, the Russian Federation first expanded its aggression to other regions of Ukraine and, eight years later, carried out a full-scale military invasion of our country.

At the same time, the events of February 26, 2014, entered history as living testimony to Crimea’s resistance to the Russian Federation’s expansionist intentions. Our people were already fighting then, at the very beginning, when the world was merely watching. They forever recorded in history that Crimea did not surrender without resistance - and that this resistance lives on to this day.

Even then, the Russian authorities clearly understood that Ukrainian citizens would not accept the attempt to illegally annex the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. They would not cease resisting the occupation forces, clearly showing the world that Crimea is Ukraine.

The Russian occupation administration has thrown all its efforts into breaking this resistance. It has turned the Crimean Peninsula into a zone of systematic repression. Illegal searches and detentions, politically motivated sentences, persecution on religious and ethnic grounds, forced mobilization, indoctrination of children and youth, and the persecution of journalists and human rights defenders have all become tools for maintaining the occupation regime.

According to available information, Russia is persecuting 1,684 individuals in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, subjecting them to arrests, administrative penalties, unlawful fines, and other forms of pressure. Criminal proceedings are currently underway against 284 individuals.

Particularly cynical is the persecution of Ukrainians and representatives of the Crimean Tatar people, the banning of the Mejlis, and attempts to erase Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar identity from the public sphere.

Despite this, Ukrainian resistance in Crimea continues. Thanks to the resilience of Ukrainians, the world sees that our people have not reconciled themselves to the Russian occupation and will never accept it. Today, we express our gratitude to everyone on the peninsula who keeps Ukraine in their heart and awaits the restoration of justice - despite everything. We know about you. We remember you. And we will never abandon you. Crimea was, is, and will be Ukraine. No one and nothing will ever change that.

The return of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol is an integral element of restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders and of achieving a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace.

Moreover, the occupation and militarization of Crimea have destabilized the security situation throughout the Black Sea region. Only the return of the peninsula to Ukraine will restore the necessary stability, peace, and security for all states in the region. The Black Sea must be a space of cooperation, trade, and prosperity - not war, threats, and instability.

We are grateful to our international partners for their support in defending life, freedom, and justice against aggression and terror. We thank the countries and international organizations participating in the Crimea Platform for consistently reminding the world that Ukrainian citizens in Crimea are resisting the occupiers, that they cannot be broken, and that the Crimean Peninsula is an inseparable part of Ukraine.

We call on the international community, all states, and international organizations to strictly adhere to the policy of non-recognition of the temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. Do not allow any actions or contacts that could call this policy into question. Maintain and strengthen international pressure on the occupation administrations and those responsible for human rights violations and other systemic crimes on the peninsula.

We urge the world to keep Russian crimes against our people in the occupied territories in the focus of the international community. We call on the global community to make every effort to secure the release of our people unlawfully imprisoned by the occupiers from Russian prisons — and to return the stolen peninsula to its rightful owner.

Theft is always temporary. Crimea is Ukraine.