Ukraine's key argument is: Crimea is Ukraine and Russia is an occupant state. The establishment of the Crimean Platform and the Strategy for De-Occupation and Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Crimea give us hope that we can move from stating the obvious to developing and implementing specific mechanisms.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy shares with Crimean journalists his plans to kickstart the process of returning Crimea, reveals the main purpose of the Crimean Platform, and explains when Ukraine will feel like a real maritime state.

Lack of hospital beds, shortage of medicines and qualified doctors, and most importantly, the decision not to lock down and restrict the flow of tourists from Russia have cost many Crimean lives.

Despite the fact that Ukrainian legislation was not prepared for occupation and its negative consequences, Ukraine has been effective in overcoming the legal problems of Crimeans and IDPs from the peninsula.

By encouraging the relocation of its citizens to Crimea and displacing disloyal Crimean citizens, the Russian authorities hope to assert their right to the peninsula. International humanitarian law qualifies such actions as a war crime.

In a series of questions and answers, we explain what sanctions have been imposed on Russia for its occupation of Crimea, their impact on the Crimean economy, and their effectiveness.

After Russia occupied Crimea in 2014, not only was the Ukrainian government ousted from the peninsula, but also freedom of speech, followed by professional journalism.

Liza Andreyeva is in Simferopol's Gagarin Park when the call connects. Behind her stand sprawling spruce trees and a little further away, the Eternal Flame. «Look,» she says. «Everything here is the same.» A little piece of the familiar in a vastly different Crimea.

Even before assuming the position of the minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba was an irritant for Russian officials. Why? Regardless of his job, Kuleba spent his last seven years continuously countering Russian aggression and insisting on furthering sanctions against the country.

The seven years of occupation have seen the birth and maturation of children who have never experienced Ukrainian Crimea and cannot remember what Ukraine is like.

In its seven years of occupation, Russia turned Crimea into a powerful military-naval base, which, apart from openly helping Russian mercenaries fight in Syria, is gathering ammunition good enough to shoot at the British Isles and Spain and carry nuclear warheads.

Crimean journalist Mykola Semena interviews the former Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, Mustafa Dzhemilev, about the peninsula's autonomy, past, and future. Both men are from Crimea. They share years of knowing each other, a deep understanding of the modern history of the Crimean Peninsula, and a history of persecution by the occupying authorities.

Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians with a very clear national identity have been viewed as a threat to Russia's security in Crimea by the peninsula's occupying authorities since 2014. Russian authorities deliberately destroy tangible and intangible cultural heritage that doesn't fit into the Kremlin's modern ideology.

Russia's occupation of Crimea has left the peninsula without its main source of drinkable water, much electricity, or transport logistics established over the decades. Russia often resolves these issues at the expense of ecology, natural resources, and the health of the locals.

After Russia occupied Crimea in 2014, Moscow started pouring money into the peninsula. Crimea enjoyed an indicative increase in salaries in the public sector, an automatic doubling of pensions in the first year, and an extremely favourable exchange rate from hryvnia to rouble.

A group of four activists was detained by Russia's special forces in May 2014: Oleg Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Hennadiy Afanasiev, Oleksiy Chyrniy. Accused of 'terrorism' and sentenced to 7 to 20 years in prison, they became one of the first and most famous Crimean political prisoners.

It's unwise to think that Ukraine would gain something had all the pro-Ukrainian people left Crimea. Had Crimea had an absolutely loyal population, Kremlin propagandists would construct the illusion of the "Crimean nation" undoubtedly wanting to live in Russia.

The 1945 Yalta Conference was held six months after the deportation of Crimean Tatars. World leaders then gathered in Crimea to work out a system of collective security after World War 2.

When dictators are allowed to bite off a finger, they want the rest of the hand too, and won't stop until they eat you entirely. A beast will only understand the language of force.

Crimea will always be an important subject to me — it's my home. I cannot talk about Crimea without crying. I can no longer go there and see how the Crimean youth is changing, what music it listens to, how it talks, whether it's making good decisions. My nephews and nieces are there.

Crimea has systemically transformed Russia too. The seized region has become something of a Ring of Power from Tolkien's writings for the country. With every day of Crimea's existence in Russia, the country is changing — for the worse.

The fight to return Crimea under Ukraine's full sovereignty is about more than restored justice, returned territories, people, and property. It's a fight to return its history to our state.

Every day, new videos emerge with pleas to Putin to provide protection. In each of these videos, people say that they've been supporting Russia and had voted in the referendum. As if loyalty can force the thieves to return the right to the land to the locals.

The number of people unsatisfied with the situation in Crimea is rising. Eventually, herd immunity against the Russian virus will come into play, and we will be ready.

We used a very simple method to develop a visual identity. We've annexed one of the letters in the peninsula's name, and Crimea became «Crime». We won't give the old name back to Crimea until Crimea itself is returned to Ukraine.

In the first days of Crimean occupation, Ukrainian human rights defenders and state lawyers started a legal war that is preventing Russia from legalising its right to the stolen peninsula.