Arseniy Yatsenyuk was appointed by the Rada to serve as the head of a caretaker government until new presidential and parliament elections could be held. On 4 February 2014, the Presidium of the Supreme Council “promised” to consider holding a referendum on the peninsula’s status. The oblast conducted a referendum in 1991, which asked whether Crimea should be elevated into a signatory of the New Union Treaty (that is, become a union republic on its own).
- On 25 February, in a meeting with Crimean politicians, he stated that Viktor Yanukovych was still the legitimate president of Ukraine.
- Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, stated that “The authorities in Crimea are totally illegitimate, both the parliament and the government. They are forced to work under the barrel of a gun and all their decisions are dictated by fear and are illegal”.
- Ahead of its full-scale invasion, Moscow deployed troops and weapons to Crimea, allowing Russian forces to quickly seize large parts of southern Ukraine early in the war.
- When the Soviet Union collapsed, the peninsula became part of newly independent Ukraine.
- Putin’s swift manoeuvre prompted protests of some Russian intelligentsia and demonstrations in Moscow against a Russian military campaign in Crimea.
Russian annexation of Crimea
The two casualties had a joint funeral attended by both the Crimean and Ukrainian authorities, and both the Ukrainian soldier and Russian paramilitary “self-defence volunteer” were mourned together. The Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol became the 84th and 85th federal subjects of Russia. Russia invited a group of observers from various European far-right political parties aligned with Putin, who stated the referendum was conducted in a free and fair manner. OSCE refused to send observers to the referendum, stating that invitation should have come from an OSCE member state in question (i.e. Ukraine), rather than local authorities.
It affirmed the council’s commitment to the “sovereignty, political independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders”. Though a total of 13 council members voted in favour of the resolution and China abstained, Russia vetoed the resolution. On 15 March 2014, a US-sponsored resolution that went to a vote in the UN Security Council to reaffirm that council’s commitment to Ukraine’s “sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity” was not approved. US Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe, warned that the same troops were in a position to take over the separatist Russian-speaking Moldovan province of Transnistria. US deputy national security advisor Tony Blinken said that the Russian troops massed on the eastern Ukrainian border may be preparing to enter the country’s eastern regions. On 13 March 2014, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned the Russian government it risks massive damage to Russia, economically and politically, if it refuses to change course on Ukraine, though close economic links between Germany and Russia significantly reduce the scope for any sanctions.
According to the German newspaper Die Welt, the annexation of Crimea is economically disadvantageous for the Russian Federation. Hotels and restaurants are also experiencing problems with finding enough seasonal workers, who were most arriving from Ukraine in the preceding years. In 2015, overall 3 million tourists visited Crimea according to official data, while before annexation it was around 5.5 million on average. The number of tourists visiting Crimea in the 2014 season was lower than in the previous years due to a combination of “Western sanctions”, ethical objections by Ukrainians, and the difficulty of getting there for Russians. The annexation had a negative influence on Russians working in Ukraine and Ukrainians working in Russia. Crimean agricultural yields were also significantly impacted by the annexation.citation needed Ukraine cut off supplies of water through the North Crimean Canal, which supplies 85% of Crimea’s fresh water,failed verification causing the 2014 rice crop to fail, and greatly damaging the maize and soybean crops.
The events in Kyiv that ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych on 22 February 2014 sparked both pro-Russian and anti-separatism demonstrations in Crimea. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the peninsula became part of newly independent Ukraine. The Soviet Union took over Crimea after the Tatars briefly regained independence as a Tatar republic for two centuries. Russia has frequently used Crimea as a launch pad for missile and drone attacks since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2024, and the Ukrainian military has also fired missiles at Crimea. It is strategically significant for military purposes and global transportation. Weeks after the annexation, fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine between pro-Kremlin militias and Kyiv’s forces.
According to the United Nations and multiple NGOs, Russia is responsible for multiple human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary detention, forced disappearances and instances of discrimination, including persecution of Crimean Tatars in Crimea since the illegal annexation. (According to February 2016 official Ukrainian figures) after Russia’s annexation 10% of Security Service of Ukraine personnel left Crimea; accompanied by 6,000 of the pre-annexation 20,300 people strong Ukrainian army. In the year following the annexation, armed men seized various Crimean businesses, including banks, hotels, shipyards, farms, gas stations, a bakery, a dairy, and Yalta Film Studio. On early June that year Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a Government resolution No.961 dated 5 June 2014 establishing air, sea, road and railway checkpoints. In the area that now forms the border between Crimea and Ukraine mining the salt lake inlets from the sea that constitute the natural borders, and in the spit of land left over stretches of no-man’s-land with wire on either side was created.
- As of March 2014 the incident was under investigation by both the Crimean authorities and the Ukrainian military.
- There are many summer sea-bathing resorts such as Alupka, Yalta, Gurzuf, Alushta, Sudak, and Feodosia.
- Following Crimea’s vote to join Russia and subsequent annexation in March 2014, the top football clubs withdrew from the Ukrainian leagues.
- The length of line is about 90 km and passengers are assigned a seat.
- Putin later called a referendum in Crimea to join Russia that Ukraine and the West dismissed as illegal.
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The riot police arrested him, and a local pro-government lawyer then accused him of being a supporter of “fascism”. On 5 March, an anchor of the Russian-controlled TV channel RT America, Abby Martin, criticized her employer’s biased coverage of the military invervention. President Putin’s approval rating among the Russian public increased by nearly 10% since the crisis began, up to 71.6%, the highest in three years, according to a poll conducted by the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Research, released on 19 March.
After the annexation, fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine between pro-Kremlin militias and Kyiv’s forces. A Russian military landing ship transports cars and people because the Kerch Bridge connecting the Russian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula over the Kerch Strait is closed on Monday, July 17, 2023. Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea on March 18, 2014, was recognized only by countries such as North Korea and Sudan. Putin later called a referendum in Crimea to join Russia that Ukraine and the West dismissed as illegal. Amid the turmoil, Russian President Vladimir Putin pounced, sending armed troops without insignia to overrun Crimea. The port city of Sevastopol serves as the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Besides the isthmus of Perekop, the peninsula is connected to the Kherson Oblast’s Henichesk Raion by bridges over the narrow Chonhar and Henichesk straits and over Kerch Strait to the Krasnodar Krai. In 2014, Crimea saw demonstrations against the removal of the Russia-leaning Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in Kyiv and protests in support of Euromaidan. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Ukrainian independence in 1991 most of the peninsula was reorganised as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. The autonomous republic was dissolved in 1945, and Crimea became an oblast of the Russian SFSR.
What to know about Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula seized by Russia from Ukraine over a decade ago
