The 335 people's deputies voted for him. Deputies called this decision historic.

What are the rights of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine and how will the new law protect them? How it will affect the legal assessment of Russian repressions in the occupied Crimea - the journalist of Public Crimea Anastasia Rashko understood.

"The adoption of this law is a new dimension in the process of reintegration of the occupied Crimea", - Snaver Seitkhalilev said, Deputy Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine.

In the law - for the first time, as indigenous peoples are officially defined - Crimean Tatars, Karaites and Crimean Tatars.

Vyacheslav Lombroso, a Crimean GEO Lviv community representative, said that they had been waiting for this decision for 25 years.

“In 1996, the Constitution of Ukraine was adopted, where 3 articles mentioned indigenous peoples. But there was no definition of the term "indigenous people". Finally we waited. It became clear to Ukraine that the peoples formed on its territory are the property of the state. It is a cultural, linguistic and religious diversity".

The chairman of the Crimean Tatar People's Majlis, Refat Chubarov, says that the adoption of the law inspires people to support Ukraine's sovereignty.

"Although we will not be able to practically implement certain articles of the law in the conditions of Russian occupation. But it is the adoption of the law that inspires people to support it. They claim that their expectations of restoring Ukraine's state sovereignty over Crimea are not in vain".

According to human rights activists, Russian repression, particularly against the Crimean Tatars on the occupied peninsula, is now a violation of human rights, but also a violation of the rights of indigenous peoples.

"Terrorist methods used against Crimean Tatars are aimed at creating such conditions, if not mass deportation. They deprive the Russians of the opportunity to create fake organizations that allegedly represent the Crimean Tatars and certainly tell how they live in the occupation. This means that we can show that these systems do not work and appeal to partners in the West, to the UN, and those who deal with human rights", - political scientist Oleksandr Khara said.

According to lawyer Oleksandr Pavlichenko, the law protects indigenous peoples from forced assimilation and deprivation of integrity as original peoples.

"If the violations reach a level that threatens the destruction of identity, the disappearance of the erosion of the people, which is recognized as indigenous - it will require tough action by international institutions. Through an international instrument that will require separate monitoring of the rights of indigenous peoples in the occupied Crimea, this is a communication to the international institutions of the Council of Europe".

According to the Law on Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine, the state also guarantees the preservation and development of indigenous languages. In March 2021, the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories adopted a concept for developing and promoting the Crimean Tatar language.

"This is a language development strategy, literally next month, a strategy will be adopted, then an action plan for the strategy. As a result of the strategy, there are plans to establish a centre of the commission on the Crimean Tatar language, as the executive body of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine", - Deputy Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Snaver Seithalilev said.