This week the representatives of the International Crimea Platform Expert Network visited Washington DC with a human rights advocacy mission. The delegation included Ms. Olga Srkypnyk (Chairwoman of the Crimean Human Rights Group), Ms. Kateryna Rashevska (legal expert at the Regional Center for Human Rights), Ms. Alena Lunova (Advocacy Director of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA), Ms. Maria Kurinna (Ukrainian human rights defender) and Ms. Mariia Sulialina (Head of the Center of civil education “Almenda”).

Ukrainian experts were briefed by Ambassador Oksana Markarova , and held meetings with the U.S. State Department, U.S. Congress, Washington-based think-tanks and foundations to discuss russia’s flagrant violations of human rights on temporary occupied territories, as well as russia’s illegal deportation of Ukrainian children and civilians.

The International Crimea Platform was launched upon the initiative of President Volodymyr Zelensky as an international consultative and coordination format with the aim of peacefully ending the russian federation’s temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and to restore control of Ukraine over this territory in full accordance with international law. The First Summit of the International Crimean Platform was held on August 23, 2021 in Kyiv. The Platform operates at inter-state, inter-parliamentary and expert levels.