Crimean Tatars still refuse to submit to Russian occupation. Most opposed the 2014 annexation, and their leadership continues to demand Crimea’s reunification with Ukraine.

Russia has not taken kindly to this dissent. Russian authorities have shut down Crimean Tatar media. Russian forces have raided homes and mosques, and harassed and imprisoned Crimean Tatar activists, some of whom have disappeared or been killed. Russia has tried to block the Crimean Tatars from publicly commemorating the deportation and has even re-exiled Mustafa Dzhemilev, the Crimean Tatars’ political leader.

According to Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, about 20,000 Crimean Tatars have fled the peninsula since the annexation. This is devastating for a people who spent 45 years banished from their homeland. Many thought they were done with Russia once and for all when the Soviet Union disintegrated and Crimea belonged to Ukraine. Few predicted that their nightmare would begin anew in 2014.

If the Crimean Tatars are to survive, Western governments must do more to help.

The first step is to formally recognize the Crimean Tatars as the indigenous people of Crimea. Ukraine finally did so two years ago, and the European Parliament later followed. Likewise, the 1944 deportation should be recognized as an act of genocide. Ukraine officially declared it so in 2015 and is now calling on other governments and organizations, including the United Nations, to do the same.

The State Department has issued the occasional news release denouncing Russia’s treatment of the Tatars, but this is not enough. After Russia's invasion of Crimea, President Obama signed executive orders outlining the sanctions the United States would apply and the justifications for them. These should be updated to cite Russia’s human rights violations against the Tatars. The United States should also push for European Union officials to renew sanctions against Russia when they expire at the end of July. Not doing so would signal to Mr. Putin that he can get away with trampling on Ukraine’s sovereignty.

In addition, American elected officials should support the Stand for Ukraine bill, introduced in Congress in April. The law would affirm the United States’ refusal to recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea. More significantly, it would prevent the president from lifting the sanctions listed in the executive orders until Crimea’s status has been resolved with Ukraine’s approval.