The life of Iryna Brunova-Kalisetska changed drastically after the Russian military invasion in Crimea in February 2014. A former non-governmental organization worker who spent her life on Ukraine’s peninsula, she realized she had to leave the occupied territory.“The first wave of emigration from Crimea mostly included those people for whom it was dangerous to stay – because of their political or religious views — and those who didn’t imagine their lives in annexed Crimea and, most of all, wanted to save their Ukrainian identity,” Brunova-Kalisetska explains. An ardent supporter of Ukraine, she came to Kyiv last March to start a new life away from her home in Simferopol.

More than 20,000 residents have left Crimea in the last year, at least half of those are Crimean Tatars, who face persecution along with pro-Ukrainian activists, says Refat Chubarov, the leader of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis.

Recently the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe monitoring mission reported that more than 300 cases of alleged human rights violations were recorded in Crimea during the year of occupation. At least 21 Crimean Tatars have been kidnapped, the organization said.