In 2021, Ukraine launched the Crimea Platform, a diplomatic initiative aimed at protecting the rights of Crimean inhabitants and ultimately reversing the annexation of Crimea. In 2017, a survey performed by the Centre for East European and International Studies showed that 85% of the non-Crimean Tatar respondents believed that if the referendum would be held again it would lead to the same or “only marginally different” results. The Ukrainian government called the Russian accusations “cynical” and “senseless” and argued that since Crimea was Ukrainian territory, it was Russia which “has been generously financing and actively supporting terrorism on Ukrainian territory”. A number of individuals were detained, including Yevhen Panov, who is described by Russian sources as a Ukrainian military intelligence officer and leader of the sabotage group. On 8 August 2016, Ukraine reported that Russia had increased its military presence along the demarcation line.

There are more than fifty salt lakes and salt pans on the peninsula. This makes for significant seasonal fluctuation in water flow, with many streams drying up completely during the summer. There are 257 rivers and major streams on the Crimean peninsula; they are primarily fed by rainwater, with snowmelt playing a very minor role. The main range of these mountains rises with extraordinary abruptness from the deep floor of the Black Sea to an altitude of 600–1,545 metres (1,969–5,069 ft), beginning at the southwest point of the peninsula, called Cape Fiolent. North of the peninsula the Dnieper turns westward and enters the Black Sea through the east–west Dnieper-Bug Estuary which also receives the Bug River. The eastern tip of the Crimean peninsula comprises the Kerch Peninsula, separated from Taman Peninsula on the Russian mainland by the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov, at a width of between 3–13 kilometres (1.9–8.1 mi).

On 3 April 2014, the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol became parts of Russia’s Southern Military District.citation needed On 7 May 2015, Crimea switched its phone code system from the Ukrainian number system to the Russian number system. On 27 March, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a non-binding resolution, which declared the Crimean referendum and subsequent status change invalid, by a vote of 100 to 11, with 58 abstentions and 24 absent. Approximately 50% of the Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea had defected to the Russian military. On 24 March, the Ukrainian government ordered the full withdrawal of all of its armed forces from Crimea.

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The coast then runs south to Sevastopol/Chersonesus, a good natural harbor, great naval base and the largest city on the peninsula. The name was revived by the Russian Empire during the mass hellenisation of Crimean Tatar place names after the annexation of the Crimean Khanate, including both the peninsula and mainland territories now in Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. When the Bolsheviks secured Crimea, it became an autonomous soviet republic within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. A number of Russian citizens reported that they have been denied European visas after they visited Crimea after annexation. These include suspension of talks relating to military, space, investment, and visa requirements.

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. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to retake it and said Russia “won’t be able to steal” the peninsula. In 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, the peninsula became part of newly independent Ukraine. The peninsula was home to Turkic-speaking Tatars when the Russian empire first annexed it in the 18th century. Moscow threw its weight behind the insurgents, even though it denied supporting them with troops and weapons.

• On 12 March, the European Parliament rejected the upcoming referendum on independence in Crimea, which they saw as manipulated and contrary to international and Ukrainian law.
• The population is 2.4 million, and the largest city is Sevastopol.
• In response to this military buildup Ukraine also deployed more troops and resources closer to the border with Crimea.
• In March 2014, the UN General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution 100 in favour, 11 against and 58 abstentions in the 193-nation assembly that declared Crimea’s Moscow-backed referendum invalid.

Accession treaty and finalization of the annexation

The Pentagon has downplayed a Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling Russian troops along the border a regular military exercise. In response to this military buildup Ukraine also deployed more troops and resources closer to the border with Crimea. On 26 March the last Ukrainian military bases and Ukrainian Navy ships were captured by Russian troops. Morale among the Ukrainian troops, which for three weeks were blockaded inside their compounds without any assistance from the Ukrainian government, was very low, and the vast majority of them did not offer any real resistance. The means by which the referendum was conducted were widely criticised by foreign governments and in the Ukrainian and international press, with reports that anyone holding a Russian passport regardless of residency in Crimea was allowed to vote. With a referendum looming, Russia massed troops near the Ukrainian eastern border, likely to threaten escalation and stymie Ukraine’s response.

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Following the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, 38 out of the 46 Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate parishes in Crimea ceased to exist; in three cases, churches were seized by the Russian authorities. The Crimean Tatars were forcibly expelled to Central Asia by Joseph Stalin’s government as a form of collective punishment, on the grounds that some had joined the invading Waffen-SS, forming Tatar Legions, during World War II. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy drew attention to this fact in August 2022 when he stated that it was “necessary to liberate Crimea” from Russian occupation and to re-establish “world law and order”. A new phase of tourist development began when the Soviet government started promoting the healing quality of the local air, lakes and therapeutic muds.

The Professor of the Department of Philosophy at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations Andrey Zubov was fired for his article in Vedomosti, criticising Russian military intervention. The next day about 200 people protested at the building of the Russian Ministry of Defence in Moscow against Russian military involvement. The rallies received considerable attention on Russian state TV and were officially approved by the government. In Moscow, on 2 March, an estimated 27,000 rallied in support of the Russian government’s decision to intervene in Ukraine. On 25 February, in a meeting with Crimean politicians, he stated that Viktor Yanukovych was still the legitimate president of Ukraine.