Former Georgian Interior Ministry official Lasha Shergelashvili, who served as the head of the Armaments Department of the Special Operations Directorate, said on Formula TV that a banned substance was used to suppress a protest outside the Central Election Commission in 2020. When asked if he had any suspicions, he replied that he "knew for sure that it was used" as he was there at the time.
On the territory of Ukraine, outside the Crimea, most of the Crimean Tatars live in the Kyiv region. This was announced by the commander of the special unit "Crimea" of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Nariman Bilyalov.
According to the Crimean political scientist Elmira Muratova, about 300,000 Crimean Tatars remain on the peninsula. According to the official data of the occupying authorities, in 2021 they made up 14% of the Crimean population. Since 2014, more than 50,000 Crimean Tatars have left the peninsula. Most settled in mainland Ukraine. In addition, there is a large diaspora in Turkey. In August 2022, the migration service under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of this country began issuing a long-term residence permit to Crimean Tatars who left Crimea. The total number of representatives of this ethnic group and their descendants in Turkey is estimated at 3-5 million people.