Niyara Ersambetova, a political prisoner in Crimea, has gone on a hunger strike in the pretrial detention center

Niyara Ersambetova, a Crimean woman whom the occupying authorities illegally sentenced to 15 years in prison for alleged treason, began a hunger strike on June 8 due to the appalling conditions at the Simferopol pretrial detention center. She is being held in an unsanitary cell that previously housed tuberculosis patients. 

This was reported by the Crimean Human Rights Group, which noted that the toilet in the cell is completely broken and the detention center administration has openly refused to repair it.

The political prisoner also complains of a serious deterioration in her health, including a sharp rise in blood sugar levels and the appearance of a rash on her body. Prior to her unlawful detention by Russian security forces in May 2025, the woman worked as a pharmacist and was a single mother raising two children—a 9-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son. The occupiers arrested her seven days after her mother’s funeral, accusing her of collaborating with the Crimean partisan movement “Atesh” and passing on the coordinates of Russian military facilities.

In December 2025, the Russian-controlled Supreme Court of Crimea sentenced the woman to 15 years in prison on trumped-up charges of treason. In April 2026, the Third Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction in Sochi rejected the defense’s appeal, upholding the unlawful decision of the court of first instance regarding the resident of the Nizhnegorsk District of the peninsula.

Source: Crimean Human Rights Group.

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On the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of the Crimean Tatar People, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Russia continues the crimes against Ukraine that it began with the occupation of Crimea, and emphasized the importance of unity in the struggle.

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on the anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars and Circassians, highlighting the ongoing oppression of the indigenous people.