In the Quest for Peace in Ukraine, the World Must Not Forget Those Living in Russian-Occupied Crimea

On May 20, Freedom House presented its inaugural Alfred Moses Liberty Award to Server Mustafayev, a Crimean Tatar human rights defender who has been unjustly imprisoned by Russian authorities since 2020. As a cofounder of the Crimean Solidarity movement, Mustafayev provided legal, medical, and social support to victims of political persecution in Crimea following Moscow’s illegal occupation and annexation of the peninsula in 2014. It was this peaceful activism that landed him in jail, though Russian officials attempted to justify his detention by fabricating terrorism charges. Mustafayev is currently serving a 14-year prison sentence in Russia.

His wrongful detention is part of a broader campaign by Russian authorities to forcibly “Russify” and suppress non-Russian identities in Crimea. These efforts are especially insidious when it comes to children: the territory has become a hub for camps aimed at militarizing and indoctrinating Ukrainian children, the harmful effects of which may last for generations.

Writing from his prison cell in 2023, Mustafayev described life in Crimea under Russian occupation—from the arbitrary arrests and torture to the systematic destruction of non-Russian cultural landmarks—in a letter published by Freedom House:

"The Russian Federation actively, without wasting time, destroyed all dissent, activism, journalism, and justice in Crimea. . . . Dozens of people disappeared, hundreds were arrested, thousands were forcedly expelled from their native home (Crimea), homes they returned to after the genocide and deportation of 1944."

Conditions in Crimea are also representative of the grim reality faced by those living under Russian occupation across southern and eastern Ukraine. According to Freedom House’s 2025 Freedom in the World report, the state of political rights and civil liberties in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories—including Crimea—are so dire that they have received a total score of −1 out of 100.

Although Mustafayev’s story is devastating, it conveys two important facts: First, brave individuals and communities have continued to actively resist Moscow’s illegal occupation. Second, meaningful human rights work is possible even under the most hostile conditions. In an environment where one can be arrested for the smallest acts of dissent, like posting a Ukrainian song on social media or wearing clothing with colors that evoke the Ukrainian flag, human rights defenders, lawyers, citizen journalists, and many others have persisted in their extraordinary efforts, reflecting all people’s insatiable desire to live in freedom.

People-first diplomacy

As democratic governments attempt to broker an end to the Kremlin’s unjust war of conquest against Ukraine, they must remember that the subject of their negotiations is not just land and borders but the futures of millions of people. Lasting peace, security, and prosperity are only possible when fundamental rights and freedoms are upheld for all. A “people first” approach to diplomacy would prioritize political prisoners such as Server Mustafayev, their family members, and the wishes and sacrifices of all those who strive for freedom and human rights. It would recognize the histories and cultures of the land’s inhabitants, which have survived multiple attempts to eliminate them. And it would acknowledge that any exchange of territory under unjust conditions could condemn the population to further cycles of repression and violence.

Freedom House has long advocated for an end to the war on Ukraine’s terms. Given that neither side appears capable of resolving the conflict by military means alone, Kyiv has sought a cease-fire that would set the stage for a negotiated peace. But if the international community were to take the additional step of formally recognizing Russian sovereignty over any territory Moscow continues to unlawfully occupy, it would do irreparable harm to the international legal maxim that has fostered relative stability and increased prosperity for much of the globe since 1945: that sovereign borders cannot be changed by force. Just as importantly, it would signal to the people of the occupied lands that the democratic world had sided with the aggressor and abandoned them to their fate.

There is, of course, no guarantee that Vladimir Putin will ever agree to halt his invasion or discuss anything other than the annihilation of Ukraine as an independent state. With its stalling tactics at the peace table and escalatory attacks on Ukrainian civilians, Moscow has consistently shown its disdain for good-faith negotiations. Only overwhelming military and diplomatic pressure, including a stronger sanctions regime, is likely to move Putin toward meaningful peace talks.

However the war or peace negotiations unfold, the world’s democracies have a moral obligation to demonstrate solidarity with the millions of Ukrainians living under occupation, as well as a clear interest in shoring up the principles—sovereignty, the rule of law, basic human rights—that form the foundation of international peace and order.

Here are just a few of the measures that democratic governments, donors, international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and other stakeholders can take to advance these goals:

• Nonrecognition: The United States and most of its allies never recognized the illegal Soviet annexation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 1940, helping to maintain those countries’ legal continuity throughout their five decades of occupation. Democratic governments today should similarly refuse to recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea and other occupied Ukrainian territories. Those in government and nongovernmental positions alike should avoid tacit legitimization of Moscow’s illegal occupation by pushing back on maps, documents, or any other materials that appear to concede Russian sovereignty.

• Support for activists: International donors can support the work of human rights defenders and other activists inside Crimea through partnerships with Ukrainian organizations that are able to reach and directly assist such individuals. Many forms of aid are urgently needed, including sanctions on Russian officials who are involved in the imprisonment and torture of activists, journalists, and lawyers; resiliency grants to individual activists; tailored psychosocial support and trainings; and emergency funds for activists facing persecution.

• Aid for prisoners’ families: The families of political prisoners from the occupied territories are in desperate need of financial assistance, as they have typically been deprived of their main breadwinner. They must cover basic food, housing, and medical expenses; legal bills; and the cost of travel to distant court proceedings or places of detention. The prisoners themselves often rely on their families for adequate food and medicine.

• Amplification of Ukrainian advocacy: International NGOs and democratic governments should help to amplify and build on the advocacy of Ukrainian human rights organizations, with the aim of reaching broader global audiences. Prominent groups in this field include Crimean Solidarity, Crimean Process, Crimean Human Rights Group, ZMINA Human Rights Centre, Almenda, Crimean Tatar Resource Center, CrimeaSOS, Regional Center for Human Rights, and many others.

• Documentation of abuses: Democratic governments and civil society should help sustain human rights documentation efforts that address the ongoing violations in Crimea, as well as in other Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. Such abuses include arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and torture, among a litany of other crimes. Support should also be directed to documentation of the destruction of cultural heritage and the forced Russification, militarization, and re-education of Ukrainian children who are living in or were illegally removed from occupied territories.

• Cultural preservation: It is crucial to actively preserve threatened cultural heritage in the occupied territories, particularly the language and history of the Crimean Tatar people. This can be done in part through educational initiatives that engage with writers, artists, schools, museums, and other institutions in Ukraine.

A just and lasting peace for Ukraine will certainly require continued pressure on the military and diplomatic fronts. But the democratic world should never fail to support the needs and aspirations of those living under occupation, however long it lasts. As Mustafayev concluded in his 2023 letter, “Do what you can and do it today. A downpour starts with a drop.”