Umerov: Everyone who commits crimes against humanity must face justice

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said this on the Day of Remembrance for the Struggle for the Rights of the Crimean Tatar People, Ukrinform reports, citing his post on Facebook.

He recalled that “eighty-one years ago, on May 18, 1944, the Soviet regime committed one of the gravest crimes in its history — the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people from their native Crimea.”

“In just a few days, over 190,000 people — the elderly, women, children — were forcibly taken in cattle cars to Siberia and Central Asia. Thousands died on the way from inhumane conditions, hunger, and forced labor. Those who survived spent decades fighting for the right to return home. Among them was my family. Like most Crimean Tatars, I was born in exile, in Uzbekistan,” Umerov wrote.

He noted that the Soviet authorities attempted to erase the very presence of Crimean Tatars from the peninsula — renaming settlements, erasing cultural and historical traces.

“It was a deliberate crime — a crime of genocide,” he said.

According to him, history matters — because what became possible in 1944, including impunity, violence, and disregard for human dignity, repeated itself in 2014.

“Modern Russia acts in the same way as the Soviet totalitarian regime: persecuting, intimidating, forcibly conscripting, and eradicating everything Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar in Crimea,” Umerov said.

“We remember, and we will not allow that memory to be erased. Defending freedom, human rights, and our land is our duty. Everyone who commits crimes against humanity must be held accountable and face justice. Crimea is Ukraine. We will definitely bring it home. Eternal memory to the victims of the Crimean Tatar genocide,” Umerov said.

May 18 marks the Day of Remembrance for the Struggle for the Rights of the Crimean Tatar People in Ukraine, and commemorates the 81st anniversary of the mass deportation — an act of genocide against the Crimean Tatars.