“Ten years of the Crimean spring,” say billboards around the Crimean peninsula. “It all started with us.”

The Russian presidential election, to be held over three days at the end of this week, coincides with the 10-year anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. The swift seizure of the peninsula in March that year, Vladimir Putin’s response to the Maidan Revolution in Kyiv, was indeed the beginning of 10 years of military action against Ukraine.

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Crimea is second only to Moscow, among Russian regions, when it comes to the number of court cases opened against citizens for “discrediting the Russian army”, a broadly interpreted charge that can include posting pro-Ukrainian content.

An active player in the battle to subdue dissent in the peninsula is Crimean Smersh, a Telegram account named after a second world war counterintelligence body whose name was derived from the Russian phrase “Death to Spies”.

Crimean Smersh offers people the chance to denounce their friends and neighbours for “anti-Russian” behaviour. Users can message a secure Telegram bot to send information about such incidents. The channel then posts videos of police raids on people’s houses, and frequently adds mumbled on-camera “confessions” and “apologies” from those accused of being pro-Ukraine.

Yaroslav Bozhko, the Kyiv-based spokesperson for the Yellow Ribbon, a nonviolent underground movement in occupied areas of Ukraine, said that operating in Crimea now was extremely dangerous, but that even small actions like painting pro-Ukraine graffiti or tying yellow ribbons in public spaces helped the mood of other pro-Ukraine minded citizens.

“Even if someone from Crimea is silent and cannot speak, they will go through the city and see these symbols, and will understand that the fight for Ukrainian Crimea is continuing,” he said.

Read the full story here, by Shaun Walker in Kyiv and Pjotr Sauer

Deal agreed on €5bn EU facility for Ukraine

Lisa O’Carroll

EU leaders are expected to rubber stamp a deal agreed in Brussels last night to create a €5bn facility for Ukraine under the umbrella “European Peace Facility” mechanism.

However it won’t all be new money – countries like Germany, which has given €17bn in aid to Ukraine, will be able to count its bilateral contributions as part of its share of the fund.

The fund allows member states to buy defence equipment and be partially reimbursed by the central fund.

The money is a fraction of what many have said Ukraine needs – internal market commissioner Thierry Breton has said Europe’s defence fund needs to be closer to the €100bn mark.

It also comes ahead of a key meeting of the so-called “Weimar triangle” on Friday with leaders of Germany, France and Poland gathering to discuss strategy to help Ukraine win the war.

France had insisted on a strong “buy European” policy (including Norway) for arms eligible for refunds

Diplomats said a compromise was found that would allow countries buy outside Europe if EU suppliers could not deliver equipment and ammunition in timelines required.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military said this morning that overnight Russian forces attacked Ukraine with 34 Shahed drones, and that 22 of them were shot down.

He also said that about 150 settlements in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Mykolaiv regions came under Russian artillery fire.

Authorities in Kharkiv and Sumy regions said infrastructure had been targeted, Reuters reported.

Oleh Synehubov, governor of the eastern Kharkiv region, said that repairs were underway after “television infrastructure objects” had been struck.