As we have reported on several occasions, since February 2025, the occupying authorities have held Tamara Chernukha, a resident of Chornomorske (Ak-Sheikh), Crimea, born in 1963, who worked for many years as an emergency medical paramedic in that settlement, in detention.
At that time, Chernukha was taken into custody from Chornomorske by representatives of the “Federal security service” (“FSB”) on allegations of “high treason.” Since then, she has been held incommunicado at a pre-trial detention center in Simferopol.
Over the past year and a half, this case of abduction has been brought to the attention of UN and OSCE bodies; the International Committee of the Red Cross has also been aware of the situation for a year.
Furthermore, we informed UN Special Rapporteurs that, as of August 2026, the occupying “authorities” initiated “formal judicial detention” proceedings against Tamara Chernukha, again on charges of “high treason.” We also raised this case with OSCE officials during the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference.
Now, in mid-October, the occupying authorities have released a video featuring the detained Chernukha, in which she allegedly speaks of “links to Ukrainian entities.” Notably, despite the gravity of the situation, the video, purporting to show her “arrest” by two “cloak-and-dagger” operatives on a park bench, comes across as a tragicomedy. It is clear that the entire “criminal case” against Chernukha has been fabricated with the same level of absurdity.
