Ukraine Mulls Crimea Conundrum: 'You Cannot Punish Everyone'

Ukraine will take a flexible approach in dealing with potential Russian collaborators in its planned liberation of Crimea, Kyiv's representative for the occupied peninsula says, as officials plan for the potential reintegration of some 2 million people living in the areas occupied by Moscow since 2014.

Tamila Tasheva—who since April 2022 has served as President Volodymyr Zelensky's permanent representative for Crimea—told Newsweek that Kyiv expects to blacklist some 10,000 Ukrainians who have collaborated with Russian authorities, though will not punish those it deems "victims" of the occupation.

Hundreds of thousands of Russians are believed to have moved to Crimea since the peninsula was seized by President Vladimir Putin's forces in 2014. Estimates vary, but Tasheva has said the figure is between 500,000 to 800,000 newcomers. All those Russians who have entered illegally, she said, will be subject to "forced expulsion."

The scale of the campaign "depends on what the de-occupation looks like, and how the Russians will exit," Tasheva said. "I suppose that they will leave Crimea before the [Armed Forces of Ukraine] comes in, so with regards to bringing all the collaborators—those who switched sides in 2014 or later—to justice, clearly, they are expecting it and will most likely try to escape."

"Some of the top administrators, like [Kremlin-installed head of Crimea Sergei] Aksyonov, know they will be investigated not just in Ukraine, but in the West too, so that will inform their plans."

Kyiv is planning a systematic evaluation of those who stay behind, Tasheva said.

"For those who are Ukrainian citizens, they will be seen as such by us, whether or not they had gotten a Russian citizenship since 2014, voluntarily or under duress.

"We are not talking about deportation, but 'forced expulsion,' which will be deployed only against non-Ukraine citizens who crossed into the country illegally since the annexation. There will be no mass deportations, but we will tackle the issue on a case-by-case basis."

"We are already in communications across various departments and our citizens in Crimea, telling them to leave the peninsula, if possible, rather than collaborating with the occupiers," she said.

"But if you stay and participate in the illegal occupation and the war crimes committed by the Russians, you will be held to account. This won't be an easy process, which is why we are already developing the legal framework for future proceedings, including the lustration of former officials who are Ukrainian citizens that collaborated with the occupying administrations," Tasheva added.

"Lustration" broadly refers to the post-Cold War purges of officials who worked for Soviet bloc governments. In Ukraine, it also alludes to the removal of government officials who served Kremlin-aligned President Viktor Yanukovych after he was deposed in the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, the uprising that prompted Moscow's invasion of Crimea and the Donbas.

"They will be banned from holding government or official roles for a number of years, at least," Tasheva said of Ukrainian officials who will be lustrated. "Many will be held to account, but it won't be millions or even hundreds of thousands. It will be maybe 10,000."

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

Hearts and Minds

Officials in Kyiv have repeatedly appealed to Crimean residents to assist the war effort and prepare for the return of Ukrainian forces, even if such a prospect still seems distant with Ukraine's latest counteroffensive grinding slowly forwards hundreds of miles to the north.

Tasheva and other Ukrainian leaders are trying to win back the hearts and minds of Crimeans who have lived for nearly a decade under Russian control. Even before the annexation, polls and election results suggested more pro-Moscow sympathies than elsewhere in the country, not least due to the influence of, and Russian migration associated with, the Kremlin's naval base in Sevastopol.

"The key point to note is that citizens of Ukraine that found themselves living under occupation and did not work with the Russians will be considered victims of the invasion, and we will do everything to protect their rights," Tasheva said.

"And there can be extenuating circumstances—many of them were victims of Russian propaganda, of intimidation and threats, of the Russian legal system, and even the Russian culture and language. All of that needs to be taken into consideration."

"With regards to amnesty, [this] cannot really be discussed in detail or in earnest while the 'hot phase' of the war is ongoing. Our people are being killed daily, our towns are shelled—this is not the time or place to discuss any future amnesty of the perpetrators."

Still, Tasheva said, some offenses will not be tolerated.

"There is a huge demand for justice against those who led or took part in persecution of civilians, who killed and pillaged our cities, who attacked the minorities like the Crimean Tatars, and we need to satisfy that demand," she said.

"You cannot amnesty someone who took part in crimes against humanity—that is an internationally accepted principle. There is no expiration date on such crimes. But we also understand that you cannot punish everyone, even if they may have been forced to somehow engage with the occupying administrations and forces."

"It's a matter of degrees of involvement, and they will be treated accordingly."