Crimea

Crimea, which is also known as Krim or Krym, is an autonomous republic of Ukraine occupied by Russia since 2014. Although Crimea has been part of Ukraine since the 1950s, Russia illegally annexed the region in 2014. Over the course of Crimea’s history, many different countries—most notably Russia—have laid claim to the region. Crimea is located on the Crimean Peninsula, which is surrounded by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Crimea’s location on the Black Sea has long been seen as a strategic military asset for the powers that controlled the region. Furthermore, the southern part of Crimea is well known for a mild climate and popular beaches. In the years after the annexation, Ukraine continued to contest the Russian presence in Crimea, while fighting against pro-Russia separatists in the breakaway Donbas region. The occupation of Crimea also contributed to increased tensions between the West and Russia, as Western powers such as the United States supported Ukraine. In 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, escalating the conflict.

Background

The Crimean Peninsula is located in Eastern Europe and surrounded by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. It is the southernmost region of Ukraine. The peninsula is connected to mainland Ukraine by narrow strip of land called the Isthmus of Perekop. It has an area of roughly 10,500 square miles (27,000 square kilometers). The north central part of the peninsula has flat plains. Much of the land in this region is used for farming. This region’s climate is dry with cold winters and hot summers. The eastern part of the region, which is called the Kerch Peninsula, extends east into the sea toward Russia. A bridge, built by Russia and opened in 2018, spans the water and connects Kerch with Russia. This part of the country has low hills. The land has numerous volcanoes and natural springs. The southern section of Crimea is dotted with mountain chains. The southernmost part of the region has a mild climate.

In 2021, Crimea had a population of roughly 2.4 million people. The population is made up of a number of different ethnicities—in 2013, the population was included 58 percent ethnic Russians, 24 percent ethnic Ukrainians, and 12 percent ethnic Tatars—whose differing cultures, languages, and political beliefs have added to political unrest in the country. New government policies and demographic shifts since the Russian annexation have led to an increased proportion of ethnic Russians in the region, along with a reduced population of Tatars and other minorities.

The two main sectors of the Crimean economy are agriculture and tourism. Agriculture is most common in the northern section of the country, and some of the most common crops are wheat, corn, potatoes, and sunflowers. Tourism is popular in the southern part of Crimea, where the temperature is mild and the area is covered with popular beaches. The eastern part of Crimea also has some popular tourist locations; however, the 2014 Russian annexation led to a drop in tourism. International sanctions applied to Russia and Crimea in 2014 as a result of this annexation have also hampered the region's economic development. Additional sanctions applied to Russia in the wake of its 2022 invasion of Ukraine threatened to cause even further damage

Overview

The earliest human settlements in Crimea appeared tens of thousands of years ago. During the Bronze Age, Indo-European populations settled in Crimea. Then, both the Greek and Roman empires took power over the peninsula, called Taurica at the time, because Crimea was seen as a valuable strategic location. Other forces, including Gothic tribes, Mongols, and the Byzantine Empire, also held power for a time on the peninsula. In the 1400s, Crimea became a part of the Ottoman Empire. The region, then called the Crimean Khanate, became a center of slave trading. Ethnic Turks called Tatars, who belonged the Ottoman Empire, lived on the peninsula, though Russia had other plans for the region. Russia’s Catherine the Great conquered the peninsula in 1783.

In 1853, the Crimean War began, after years of rising tensions between Russia and France and the Ottoman Empire. Russia fought against an alliance that included the Ottoman Empire, Great Britain, and France, who all viewed Russian control of Crimea as a threat due to the peninsula's strategic location on the Black Sea. This conflict saw the first wartime uses of railways, high-explosive artillery, and other technological advances. During the three-year war, which included many drawn-out, bloody battles such as the 1854–55 Siege of Sevastopol, Russia depleted its military and economy. The Russians signed the Treaty of Paris in 1856 to accept defeat in the Crimean War, yet managed to retain control of Crimea. After the Russian Revolution and Civil War (1917–1923), the newly formed Soviet Union retained control over the region, though it did give the area an autonomous republic status at this time.

In June 1941, during World War II (1939–1945), German forces invaded the Soviet Union. They managed to defeat Soviet Red Army forces in Ukraine and overtake Crimea. The German forces and bombs were very destructive, causing a great deal of damage in a number of cities including Sevastopol, which was an important strategic harbor. After Germany began to lose the war in Europe and retreat, the Soviet Union retook Crimea. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin rebuilt Sevastopol to maintain the region’s strategic importance. Stalin also forced hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tatars to leave the region, as Stalin claimed they had collaborated with the Germans. Thousands of Tatars died when they were exiled to Asia and Siberia. Stalin replaced many of the Tatars with ethnic Russians to rebuild Crimea’s workforce. Stalin also deported smaller groups of Armenians, Bulgarians, and Greeks from Crimea at this time. These decisions greatly changed the ethnic makeup of Crimea, which would increase Crimean loyalty to Russia and influence the region’s history for decades to come.

In 1954, after Stalin's death, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea from Russia to Ukraine. This kept Crimea in the Soviet Union, but it removed Crimea from Russia’s jurisdiction. Many Russians were surprised by Khrushchev’s decision because Crimea, whose Ketch region is located close to Russia, was more culturally linked to Russia than to Ukraine, even though Ukraine is linked to the region by land. Although some Russians questioned Khrushchev’s decisions, other Soviet politicians used the decision to praise the Soviet Union and its leadership. They claimed that Khrushchev’s decision proved that the Russian people were kind, and it showed that the Soviet Union was not affected by ethnic turmoil or disagreement. Nevertheless, historians believe that Khrushchev’s unexpected decision to give Crimea to Ukraine was likely motived more by politics than by goodwill. A power struggle emerged in the Soviet Union after Stalin’s death, and even after Khrushchev had taken power, he wanted to create goodwill with Ukrainian leaders so he could ensure his position of power.

Throughout the Cold War, Crimea remained an important part of the Soviet Union. However, when the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Crimea remained a part of Ukraine, not Russia. Many people assumed Russian president Boris Yeltsin would attempt to negotiate Crimea being part of Russia during the dissolution of the USSR, but Ukraine became an independent country with Crimea as a legal part of it. In 1994, the Russian government signed an agreement—which also included the United States, the United Kingdom, and France—stating it would respect Ukraine’s claim to Crimea. A few years later, Russia signed an agreement with Ukraine allowing Russia to keep its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol until 2042. The lease showed that Russia still considered Crimea to be of military importance.

In 1996, Ukraine drafted a new constitution. Some citizens in Crimea wanted to leave Ukraine and create their own country, but eventually Ukraine and Crimea agreed that Crimea would remain as it was. However, in the new constitution, Crimea was named an autonomous republic. This gave Crimea its own parliament and government, though Crimea’s laws could not conflict with Ukrainian laws. The government in Crimea also had power over its own agriculture, tourism, and public infrastructure. The Tatars in Crimea also had their own parliament, which helped protect their rights and safety.

In 1999, Boris Yeltsin named politician Vladimir Putin acting Prime Minister of Russia. Putin was relatively unknown on a global scale when he came to power in Russia, but his ascension to power would change the course of Crimea’s future. Putin, who was a formed intelligence officer for the infamous Soviet KGB intelligence service, was committed to elevating Russia back to the status of an international superpower. Putin slowly began to consolidate power, and eventually ensured that he could maintain control over Russia for decades. Under Putin’s control, Russia also started to show signs of aggression toward former Soviet regions.

Ukraine was also experiencing its own political turmoil by the early 2000s. Many ethnic Russians wanted closer ties with Russia, but other Ukrainians wanted closer ties with the West and even to join the European Union (EU). The 2004 presidential election set a tone of hostility in Ukraine that would continue for the next decade, with various pro-Russian and pro-Western factions battling for control of the government. During the same time, Ukraine also had conflicts with Russia about the price of natural gas. By 2013, tensions in Ukraine reached a boiling point when Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych failed to sign an agreement with the EU that would have begun integration between the EU and Ukraine. Instead, Yanukovych turned his attention to improving relations with Russia. Street protests broke out in Ukraine over the government’s decisions. Protestors attempted to overtake government buildings, and clashes with police led to dozens of deaths. The EU and the United States supported the Ukrainian protestors, but Russia supported Yanukovych. Eventually, the violence escalated to a point where President Yanukovych fled to Russia to escape threats in Ukraine. Russia claimed that Yanukovych was overthrown in a coup, and it began to escalate aggression toward Ukraine.

In February 2014, the situation escalated when armed Russian forces seized buildings in the Crimean capital, Simferopol. The forces wore green army uniforms that did not have Russian flags on them. This gave Putin a thin cover for denying that the forces entering Crimea were Russian. The forces quickly began overtaking more buildings and checkpoints in the region. However, the forces raised Russian flags after they overtook the spaces. Russian forces then forced the local population to vote on whether Crimea should join Russia or return to its 1992 constitution, which gave the region even more autonomy than the 1996 Ukrainian constitution. The vote, implemented by the Russian forces, did not allow citizens to vote to remain part of Ukraine. Russia reported that the results showed an 83 percent voter turnout, with 96.7 percent voting to join Russia; however, human rights organizations stated that this figure was most likely inaccurate. Some estimates indicated that only about 30 percent of Crimea’s population voted in the referendum.

On March 18, 2014, Crimean and Russian officials signed the Treaty of Accession of the Republic of Crimea to Russia, which Putin signed three days later. Russia’s armed aggression against part of another sovereign nation was an international crisis that sent shockwaves around the world. Yet, despite issuing sanctions against Russia and Putin's government, international powers such as the United States and the EU decided against taking direct military action against Russia. Crimea’s annexation created even more animosity toward Russia in Ukraine.

Russia was the dominant power in Crimea for two hundred years before its annexation, and Russia was determined to continue its influence over the region no matter the cost. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine spread later in 2014, after pro-Russia separatists declared the independence of two entities, the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) and Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, which borders Russia. The separatist takeover of these regions was likely assisted by the Russian military, though Putin denied this accusation. While the Ukrainian military was able to reclaim some territory from separatists in the Donbas, it was unable to defeat them entirely, leading to a military conflict that claimed an estimated 14,000 lives between 2014 and early 2022. Ukraine received international aid from Western powers, such as the United States, while the LPR and DPR received support from Russia. Even though Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its alleged support of separatists in the Donbas violated numerous international agreements and charters and led to sanctions from many Western countries, this political and economic pressure failed to stop Russia from continuing its occupation of Crimea.

Crimea faced a number of challenges after annexation. Thousands of ethnic Tatars left the region, many choosing to live in their ancestral homelands; by 2020, an estimated 140,000 had emigrated. Many Tatars left because they were threatened and intimated by Russian forces. At the same time, Russia has sent hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens, including military officers, to live in Crimea to help protect its grip on the region. The Russian annexation also led to persecution of other ethnic minorities, namely Ukrainians, as well as heavy media restriction and censorship. Russia also spent billions of dollars in Crimea updating infrastructure and attempting to improve the economy. For example, in 2019, Russia opened two new rail lines linking Crimea to St. Petersburg and Moscow.

In 2021, Russia began massing soldiers and military equipment on its border with Ukraine, including a buildup of forces in Crimea. This move led to fears that Russia was preparing a full-scale invasion. On February 24, 2022, Putin ordered Russian forces to invade Ukraine, escalating the long-simmering conflict between the two countries into open warfare. Amid this development, Crimea remained officially part of Ukraine, while still occupied by Russia.

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