Children of citizen journalists left without guardianship due to russian repressions in Crimea

Photo: Mumine Saliyeva

As a result of repressions and illegal arrests in the annexed Crimea, a total of 252 children have been left without parental care. A total of 16 of them were born after the detention of one of their parents.

This was reported by Mumine Saliyeva, the wife of the Kremlin’s prisoner/citizen journalist Seyran Saliyev.

“Children who have lost their parents for a long time live in virtually every corner of Crimea: Bakhchysarai District – the largest number (over 100 children), Simferopol, Dzhankoi, Staryi Krym, Yalta, Alushta, Bilohirsk, Feodosiya, Kirovske Districts,” she noted in the report. According to her, working with children who have experienced tragedy and stress is difficult. Different age categories, individual pain and trauma, and personal stories that need to be listened to.

As a result of repressions and illegal arrests in the annexed Crimea, 252 children were left without parental care. Sixteen of them were born after the detention of one of their parents.

“My Safiye [Mumine’s daughter] drew her father in a cage and a globe with closed eyes on a flipchart with markers a few days ago. “This is a woman in prison. And a world that does not notice our problems,” she explained to me. “The world is not without good people,” I managed to tell her. “Yes, but the laws are unfair everywhere,” my intelligent daughter continued. “It’s good that we are not alone, and we are together, and the gifts were brought by caring Muslims,” she comforted my soul by kissing and hugging, as if encouraging me,” Mumine Saliyeva writes.

Earlier, the human rights organization CrimeaSOS reported that in 2024, at least 56 Crimeans in Crimea were persecuted by the russian authorities. Russian security forces also carried out 45 illegal searches in the territory of the peninsula.

As previously noted in the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, mass searches have become a “systemic tool of intimidation,” especially against Crimean Tatars. According to their observations, the number of political prisoners is steadily increasing as russia uses repressive methods to suppress any dissent. And the number of children who have lost one of their parents is also increasing.

NUJU Information Service