Leniie Umerova, a member of the Crimean Tatar community indigenous to the Black Sea peninsula that was annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, was imprisoned for nearly two years after crossing into Russia. Now in Kyiv, the 27-year-old fears that Crimea, as part of a final Ukraine peace deal, could be recognized as part of Russia.

Kyiv

Russian forces have invaded Ukraine from land, air and sea with strikes causing widespread damage. Global leaders have condemned the move and imposed sanctions.

Ukraine Invasion

Leniie Umerova, a Crimean Tatar who was imprisoned in Russia after attempting to visit her family in Crimea, has spoken out about her fears that a future peace deal could see Crimea formally recognized as Russian territory. Umerova's concerns are shared by many in the Crimean Tatar community, who recall past deportations under Soviet rule and ongoing repression since Russia's 2014 annexation of the peninsula.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has indicated that recognizing Crimea as part of Russia could be part of a peace settlement, a position echoed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Despite Moscow's denial of rights violations against Tatars, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has highlighted cases like Umerova's to illustrate what he describes as continued repression of the community.

Crimean Tatars fear homeland will be ceded to Russia in peace deal

Ukrainian Lenny Umarova is a member of the Crimean Tatar community, indigenous to the Black Sea Peninsula, that was annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014. The 27-year-old grew up with her grandmother, who shared stories from 1944 when Umarova's family, along with hundreds of thousands of other Crimean Tatars, were deported to Central Asia by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. The Tatars were only allowed back to Crimea in the 1980s. For so many years now, the same enemy has been doing evil to our family. Then it was the Soviet Union. Now it is Russia as its successor. In late 2022, Umarova crossed into Russia on her way to see her ailing father in their native Crimea. She was detained and forced to endure what she calls a carousel of charges and prison transfers that lasted nearly two years. The ordeal crystallized a sense of generational trauma for Umarova. She returned to Kiev last September after being released in a prisoner swap. Now, she fears that Crimea could be recognized as part of Russia in a final Ukraine peace deal, a scenario the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled is possible. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that any peace settlement with Ukraine must include sovereignty over Crimea and four other Ukrainian regions. At the time of Russia's annexation, Crimean Tatars accounted for 12 percent of the peninsula's population of some 2 million. They rejected Russia's occupation, and community leaders estimate that some 50,000 have left since 2014, though most have remained there. To give Crimea to Russia is to simply spit in the faces of tens and hundreds of tortured people, hundreds and thousands of people imprisoned in Russian prisons, Crimean political prisoners, and in the faces of hundreds of thousands of people quietly waiting in Crimea. Moscow denies Kiev's assertion that it is violating the rights of Tatars and other people in Crimea, which it says is historically Russian. Russia's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment on this story. Under peace proposals prepared by a Trump envoy, the U.S. would extend de jure recognition of Moscow's control of the peninsula, though the two sides have made little progress in peace talks since April. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to resist Trump's pressure and has cited Yumarova's case as an example of what he says is Moscow's repression of the Crimean Tatars.

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Crimean Tatars fear homeland will be ceded to Russia in peace deal

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Ukraine Invasion