The Aſt ermaths PART 3 of the Occupation: A Political 1 Repressions System 1 3.1. Characteristics of Repressions in Crimea After the massacre of unarmed members of Euromaidan protests in downtown Kyiv and the escape of the leaders of the country’s author- itarian regime, Ukraine faced new challenges. The Russian Federa- tion, which according to the Budapest Memorandum signed in 1994 is the guarantor of Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and the in- 2 violability of its borders , began the military occupation of Crimea 20 years after signing the Memorandum. ‘The need to protect the rights of the Russian-speaking population’ was used as a formal reason for the use of the armed forces and the invasion. The Russian Federation tried to legalize the overt act of aggression through the so-called ‘referendum at gunpoint’ held on March 16, 2014. The illegality of the referendum and the lack of a legal basis for any changes in the status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol 3 were recognized by the international community . In this way, in vi- olation of the generally recognized international law principles and the international obligations undertaken by the Russian Federation, 4 it annexed part of the territory of a sovereign state . 1 This section has been prepared by Oleksandra Matviychuk, Center for Civil Liberties 2 Memorandum on Security Assurances in Connection with Ukraine’s Accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons dated December 5, 1994 3 UN General Assembly Resolution dated March 27, 2014 4 Treaty made between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Crimea on accession of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Russian Federation and creation of new constituent entities in the Russian Federation dated March 18, 2014 37