Zelenskyy signs decree on Crimean Tatar rights and Mejlis status
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy (photo: president.gov.ua)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a decree aimed at ensuring the rights of the Crimean Tatar people and strengthening their national identity, according to decree No. 293/2026 published on the website of the head of state.
The document is aimed at ensuring the right of the Crimean Tatar people to sustainable development, as well as guaranteeing their ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious identity.
According to the decree, the Cabinet of Ministers must urgently work on the issue of granting the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people the legal status of a representative body of the Crimean Tatar people in accordance with the established procedure.
The decree comes into force from the day of its official publication.
Crimean Tatars in Ukraine
Earlier, Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Refat Chubarov, stated that during the occupation of Crimea, between 30,000 and 50,000 Crimean Tatars left the peninsula due to repression by the Russian authorities.
Before Russia's illegal seizure of Crimea, about 300,000–320,000 representatives of this people lived there.
In December 2025, the Mejlis called on President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to include a representative of the Crimean Tatar people in the Ukrainian delegation at international negotiations on Crimea.
