81st anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars in Kyiv

KYIV, UKRAINE - MAY 18: A leader of Crimean tatars and Soviet-era dissident Mustafa Dzemilev (C) is seen during the memorial ceremony on the 81st anniversary of the deportation of Crimean tatars in Kyiv on May 18, 2025. On May 18, 1944 Soviet authorities started the deportation of Crimean tatars. During this operation, around 200 000 Crimean tatars were deported into the inner regions of Soviet Union (mostly, to modern-day Uzbekistan), without the right to come back to their homeland. Only in the late 1980s Crimean tatars got the possibility to return to Crimea. Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Canada, Poland, Estonia and Czech Republic recognised the deportation of Crimean tatars as a genocide, conducted by the Soviet authorities. (Photo by Danylo Antoniuk/Anadolu via Getty Images)