On 23 September, Crimea is once again at the highest international level. The Sixth Summit of the International Crimea Platform is taking place at UN Headquarters in New York. Its agenda focuses on Russia’s occupation of Crimea, systematic human-rights violations, the militarisation of the peninsula — including the militarisation of youth and education — and further steps toward de-occupation. (crimea-platform.org)
The international context this year is particularly revealing.
From 18-20 September, Russia held illegal State Duma voting in occupied Crimea and Sevastopol. Ukraine, the European Union and other states have stressed that such voting does not alter the territory’s status under international law. (crimea-platform.org)
On 22 September, the European Court of Human Rights held a hearing concerning ten Ukrainian children who had been living in childcare institutions in Crimea when Russia occupied the peninsula in 2014. According to the applicants, Russian nationality was imposed on the children and their whereabouts subsequently became unknown. (echr.coe.int)
This matters because Moscow is not merely changing flags and administrative signs in Crimea. It is attempting to reshape the population, identity, education and future generations of the peninsula.
The heaviest burden falls on the Crimean Tatars, the Indigenous People of Ukraine. As of 22 September 2026, 169 Crimean Tatars were among 316 people facing politically motivated judicial persecution in occupied Crimea. The UN has previously documented Russia’s imposition of citizenship, laws and institutions in Crimea, with Crimean Tatar leaders among those particularly targeted. (crimea-platform.org; ukraine.un.org)
Crimea, therefore, is not only a question of borders.
It is a question of whether an empire can seize territory by force, suppress its Indigenous people, rewrite education and history, and then declare the result a “new reality.”
The Crimea Platform exists precisely to prevent that normalisation. Its stated goal is to end the occupation, strengthen international non-recognition and keep Crimea at the centre of the international agenda. The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People is represented at this year’s summit by a delegation led by Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov. (crimea-platform.org; qtmm.org)
Moscow may control Crimea by force. But international non-recognition, the resistance of Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians, and the continuing demand for de-occupation mean that imperial appropriation has neither become lawful nor final.
