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On March 21, 2014, the Federation Council of the Russian Federation adopted two laws. One of them concerned the ratification of the "agreement on the accession of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol", while the other proclaimed the "formation of new subjects of the federation - the Republic of Crimea and the city of federal significance Sevastopol."

On March 16, with the support of Russian special forces and regular military personnel, an illegal gathering was held on the Crimean peninsula, which was called a "referendum on the status of the region." "Would you mind if Crimea becomes part of Russia? 1) Yes, I do not mind. 2) No, I do not mind." This is how the questions in the "ballots" looked like.

The day before, the body of the first Ukrainian civilian killed during the Russian-Ukrainian war, Reshat Ametov, a Simferopol resident who was abducted on March 3 in the city center by the so-called "self-defense of Crimea", was found in the Bilohirsk district.

On the day of Ametov's funeral, March 18, the first Ukrainian soldier, a local resident Serhiy Kokurin, was killed in Simferopol. On the same day, Putin signed an "agreement on the accession of Crimea to the Russian Federation" in the Kremlin with his puppets.

On March 15, on the eve of the so-called "referendum", Simferopol hosted the last pro-Ukrainian public action in the framework of non-violent resistance to the occupation. The number of activists ready to take to the Crimean streets with Ukrainian symbols was decreasing: extrajudicial detentions and arrests, as well as moral and physical pressure were taking their toll.

In my archive, I have an open letter dated March 21, 2014, signed in abstract - "Ukrainian public organizations of Crimea". The authors of this text are unknown to me. It is quite obvious that the names of the signatories could not be made public in the circumstances of terror, massive betrayal of law enforcement and security agencies, persecution of coordinators and activists of the Ukrainian movement and the actual isolation of Crimea from mainland Ukraine at all levels.

If we set aside some unnecessary layers of pathetic rhetoric, the text contained many painful issues that were relevant at the time for Ukrainians in Crimea in general. It stated that in the twenty-first century, on their own land and in their own state, tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens were under the threat of a new genocide, ethnocide, and ethnic cleansing. It was also stated that the Ukrainian population in Crimea at that time felt the worst: despite its number of several hundred thousand, it was geographically dispersed and united.

Therefore, Ukrainian patriots, intellectuals, military personnel, activists, journalists, public figures, and clergy in the atmosphere of incited militant Russian chauvinism became the most vulnerable and unprotected by their own state. During the month of Russian occupation in Crimea, several dozen Ukrainians disappeared: the fate of many of them is still unknown.

Ukrainian families were constantly threatened by the occupiers' servants. It has become dangerous to speak Ukrainian in public places and on the streets of the occupied peninsula, as well as to display Ukrainian symbols.

In addition, the letter noted that the Vernadsky Tauride National University had suspended the activities of the Faculty of Ukrainian Philology, and other Crimean universities planned to close the departments of Ukrainian language and literature. However, the decision was made by some functionaries of the faculty without waiting for any orders from the regional Ministry of Education and Science or even from the administration of university. I will not name them: everything will happen in its own time, and God is their judge. After one of the teachers was beaten on the street in the spring of 2014 because he spoke Ukrainian on the phone, students and teachers received a verbal order not to speak Ukrainian outside the faculty. In the end, the faculty was shrunk to a department and included in the Faculty of Slavic Philology, which is good that it was not a foreign department, as some had planned. This department still exists today, but it's regrettable to say under what conditions. Back in 2014, the teachers were subjected to moral terror, and in the current situation, any contact with or sympathy for a free Ukraine is simply dangerous for them.

"Unbearable conditions are being created for teachers of Ukrainian language and literature, Ukrainian studies and history. Almost all of them will be unemployed tomorrow. The closure of Ukrainian classes and the liquidation of the few Ukrainian schools, especially the well-known Ukrainian school-gymnasium in Simferopol, are planned, and the dismissal of its director, Honored Worker of Education of Ukraine Natalya Rudenko, is already planned," the open letter reads. Needless to say, these predictions came true, as did the liquidation of the Ukrainian Music Theater, which was already purely formal, and Ukrainian theater studios. Even things that were not thought of at the time came true, such as the actual liquidation of the Crimean Diocese of the OCU and the UGCC parishes.

"Crimean Ukrainians in the third millennium do not want to become a nutritious substrate and cannon fodder for the world-threatening aggressive Putin's empire, slaves, servants and hired help of the Kremlin's henchmen,", the authors of the open letter assured. They expected effective support and protection from the Ukrainian authorities, law enforcement agencies, security forces and the Armed Forces, and also expected to be provided and guaranteed:

• living and working on the peninsula within the legal framework of Ukraine;
• the future for children and grandchildren;
• preservation of all constitutional rights and freedoms;
• education in their native language and preservation of national identity;
• preservation of land and property rights and savings;
• in case of forced departure of citizens from Crimea - granting them refugee status;
• providing compensation for lost housing, material values, savings and employment at the new place of residence as well.
  

However, the Ukrainian government, which was busy redistributing portfolios and spheres of influence at the time, was not up to us. Occasionally, some figures were enough to wave to us for a few seconds in the camera with an appeal like "Hang in there," a tearful request not to receive Russian passports, and a couple of hastily learned Crimean Tatar words.

The fact of occupation is complete. Those who stayed in the occupied Crimea were branded "traitors" and "collaborators" - almost all of them without exception. Those who left and then returned home, unable to gain a foothold in a new place, were also labeled as such. Those who did not return (including the author of these lines) experienced all the joys of the Ukrainian bureaucratic system with its walks through offices, demands to bring some "certificates" from the occupation authorities, branding as "Russian citizens" because of their Crimean residence, as well as financial assistance in the form of a dozen or two dollars a month, which had to be obtained by standing in lines for several weeks and could be terminated at any time without explanation. Without their own housing and without any sane prospects.

The twelfth year of searching for an answer to the question - who are we for you, Ukraine?