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In the spring of 2014, convoys of Russian armored vehicles traveling along the peninsula's highways were met on the roadsides not with flowers but with posters reading “Crimea is Ukraine” and blue and yellow flags. It was the first protest action of the Women of Crimea for Peace. Since then, despite all the efforts of the FSB, the protest movement has not been suppressed. And with the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the resistance has only intensified. Who is demonstrating disobedience to the invaders on the peninsula right now and how? We talked to human rights activists, and here's what they had to say.

Zhovta Strichka (The Yellow Ribbon)

Created in the city of Kherson, which was seized in the spring of 2022, Zhovta Strichka movement spread across Crimea in just a month. The first yellow “Ї” letters appeared in the residential areas of Yalta, and since then the symbols of the movement have been seen in most of the large settlements of Crimea. According to the organizers of Zhovta Strichka, in the first year of the movement's existence, about three and a half thousand Crimeans joined it, which is a lot for a territory that had been under occupation for 8 years.

The activists quickly moved from graffiti and tying yellow ribbons to fences to more outspoken actions, distributing leaflets with content that infuriated the occupiers. ‘Kerch. Ukraine is near’, ‘De-occupation will happen’, ‘Ukrainian flag will be in Sevastopol’, ‘Armed Forces are close’ - activists posted posters with such slogans in Crimean cities and sent photos to the movement's telegram channel. One of the wittiest actions was the fight against the symbols of Russian aggression - the letters “Z” that filled all possible and impossible spaces. The activists crossed out the letter so that instead of a “Z” it looked like an hourglass icon, which, if possible, was also painted in the colors of Ukraine. This clock, as conceived by the authors, is a direct message to the occupiers that the time for their “Z-aggression” is already running out.

Of course, the Russian special services are actively hunting for the representatives of  Zhovta Strichka. Back in the fall of 2022, police units were told that when inspecting young people's personal belongings, they should pay special attention to the presence of yellow fabric in their pockets or backpacks. Several activists were detained, but were able to leave after humiliating video-recorded apologies and fines. But at least two Crimeans associated with t Zhovta Strichka have been subjected to more severe persecution. A resident of Simferopol, whose computer was found to contain excerpts of leaflets, was planted with explosives during a search and imprisoned for five years. A resident of Sevastopol was detained during the rally, accused of collaborating with Ukrainian special services, and imprisoned for the same five years.

Zli Mavky (The Evil Nymphs)

This women's resistance movement was born in occupied Melitopol, but quickly gained popularity in Crimea, where activists began to be called Crimean mavkas. They held one of their recent actions under the slogan “Fill Crimea with the voices of Ukrainian poetry.” The women wrote Ukrainian poems on brightly colored stickers and sculpted them in public places. Ribbons with the “Chase the Katsap (an ethnopholism, pejorative nickname of Russians by Ukrainians and Poles, used in colloquial Ukrainian since the 18th century to refer to Russians - editorial) away from everywhere! Let him die in a pit by the road!” looked very fiiting on a Russian army advertising poster.

Other creative solutions included printing and distributing leaflets that looked like Russian money. On a copy of a 2000 ruble bill, they added an explosion and destruction to the image of the Kerch Bridge on one side, and on the reverse side, they wrote “independence” and depicted two groups of Ukrainian army soldiers with flags of different units. The action to sow Crimean streets with such “money” was held on the occasion of Ukraine's Independence Day. 

Another interesting project of the “nymphs” is the printing of one-page “weekly news”, which tells about all the strikes on Russian infrastructure, publishes figures of Russian losses, and other information that the occupation authorities hide from the residents. The leaflets are distributed inside Crimean newspapers filled with lies and propaganda.

The land of partisan glory

The Telegram channel “Crimea - the land of partisan glory” has become another example of peaceful resistance of an informational nature. Activists of this movement focused on finding personal information about collaborators on the peninsula. They collect not only their names but also convincing evidence of cooperation with the enemy so that traitors will not be able to avoid responsibility after de-occupation.

The heroes of the publications are “volunteers” who raise money for the Russian military, heads of educational institutions who are too concerned with the militarization of education, and organizers of illegal elections. Another useful option from this movement is joint attacks on the Internet sites of Crimean “Z-bloggers.”

There are other movements, not so well known and not so numerous, individual initiatives and individual activists. This is evidenced by almost a thousand court cases against Crimeans for demonstrating pro-Ukrainian beliefs. There are thousands of people in Crimea who fearlessly support their countrymen's belief in de-occupation. Those who hope for it are hundreds of times more.