Russian planning At the end of January 2014, Russian oligarch
Konstantin Malofeev travelled to Crimea with his head of security, former
Federal Security Service (FSB) officer
Igor Girkin (alias 'Strelkov'). Malofeev met with
Vladimir Konstantinov, Chairman of the
Supreme Council, asking him whether he would be willing to take "more drastic measures" to enforce Crimea's autonomy should there be a revolution. Konstantinov had already met with
Nikolai Patrushev, head of the
Security Council of Russia, in Moscow in December 2013 where he told Patrushev that if Yanukovych was overthrown, Crimea would be ready to break off and become part of Russia. At the end of January 2014, Konstantinov met with
Vladislav Surkov, Putin's adviser on Ukraine. On February 4, Konstantinov appealed to Putin to guard Crimean autonomy and began preparing a "survey" of Crimeans on what its status should be. Surkov visited Crimea on February 14, where he might have tried to recruit
Crimean prime minister,
Anatolii Mohyliov, for the Russian cause. In early February 2014, before the Ukrainian revolution, the Kremlin received a strategy paper outlining plans for the annexation of Crimea. The documents said that the Ukrainian government and president
Viktor Yanukovych were "totally bankrupt" and would not last. On 21 February 2014, Ukrainian president Yanukovych secretly fled the capital. Russia's leadership worried that its naval base in Crimea might be at risk under a new Ukrainian government that was committed to closer ties with the West. On 22–23 February 2014, Russian president Putin held an all-night meeting with security chiefs to discuss the crisis. At the end of that meeting, Putin said: "we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia". The
GRU and
FSB then began organizing sympathizers in Crimea to ensure that when the operation began there would be armed "local self‑defense groups" on the streets for support. According to political scientist
Daniel Treisman, Putin may have begun planning to take Crimea even before Yanukovych was ousted. A source close to the commander of the operation said that Russian special forces in the port of
Novorossiysk and the Black Sea Fleet in
Sevastopol had already been put on alert on February 18. Participants in the operation were later awarded a
medal "For the Return of Crimea", which is engraved with February 20 as the start date of the operation.
Early unrest (Ukrainian flag on the left, Crimean Tatar flag on the right) during the Russian military intervention in Crimea, 9 March 2014 The February 2014
Revolution of Dignity that ousted Ukrainian president
Viktor Yanukovych sparked a political crisis in Crimea, which initially manifested as
demonstrations against the new
interim Ukrainian government, but rapidly escalated. In late February, thousands of Russian soldiers dressed as civilians joined the "Crimean self-defense" units, as did almost one thousand
Kuban Cossacks from the
North Caucasus. The activities of these groups were closely coordinated with Russian military forces and planned by Russian defense officials. Igor Girkin ('Strelkov') oversaw command of some of the units and their coordination with Russian security officials. Almost ten thousand people joined these "self-defense" units, but it is unclear how many were locals. On February 20 several buses with Crimean license plates were stopped at a pro-Maidan checkpoint in a town in
Cherkasy oblast. Their passengers were violently intimidated and some buses were burned. This incident was subsequently used by Russian propaganda which made unsubstantiated claims that the passengers were killed in gruesome ways. The local parliament of Crimea was the
Verkhovna Rada of Crimea or Supreme Council of Crimea. Some MPs called for an extraordinary meeting on 21 February. In response to Russian separatist sentiment, the
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that it would "use severe measures to prevent any action taken against diminishing the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine". The party with the largest number of seats in the Crimean parliament (80 of 100), the
Party of Regions of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, did not discuss Crimean secession, and were supportive of an agreement between President Yanukovych Crimean prime minister
Anatolii Mohyliov said that his government recognised the new provisional government in Kyiv, and that the Crimean autonomous government would carry out all laws passed by the Ukrainian parliament. In
Simferopol, following a pro-Russian demonstration the previous day where protesters had replaced the Ukrainian flag over the parliament with a Russian flag, a pro-Euromaidan rally of between 5,000 and 15,000 was held in support of the new government, and demanding the resignation of the Crimean parliament; attendees waved Ukrainian, Tatar, and European Union flags. Meanwhile, in Sevastopol, thousands protested against the new Ukrainian government, voted to establish a parallel administration, and created civil defence squads with the support of the Russian
Night Wolves motorcycle club. Protesters waved Russian flags, chanted "Putin is our president!" and said they would refuse to further pay taxes to the Ukrainian state. Russian military convoys were also alleged to be seen in the area. On 24 February, more rallied outside the Sevastopol city state administration. Pro-Russian demonstrators accompanied by neo-
Cossacks demanded the election of a Russian citizen as mayor and hoisted Russian flags around the city administration; they also handed out leaflets to sign up for a self-defence militia, warning that the "
Blue-
Brown Europlague is knocking".
Volodymyr Yatsuba, head of Sevastopol administration, announced his resignation, citing the "decision of the city's inhabitants" made at a pro-Russian rally, and while caretaker city administration initially leaned towards recognition of new Ukrainian government, continued pressure from pro-Russian activists forced local authorities to concede. Consequently,
Sevastopol City Council illegally elected
Alexei Chaly, a Russian citizen, as mayor. Under the law of Ukraine, it was not possible for Sevastopol to elect a mayor, as the
Chairman of the Sevastopol City State Administration, appointed by the
president of Ukraine, functions as its mayor. A thousand protesters present chanted "A Russian mayor for a Russian city". On the same day, crowds gathered again outside Sevastopol's city hall on Tuesday as rumours spread that security forces could arrest Chaly, but police chief Alexander Goncharov said that his officers would refuse to carry out "criminal orders" issued by Kyiv. Viktor Neganov, a Sevastopol-based adviser to the Internal Affairs Minister, condemned the events in the city as a coup. "Chaly represents the interests of the Kremlin which likely gave its tacit approval," he said. Sevastopol City State Administration chairman Vladimir Yatsuba was booed and heckled on 23 February, when he told a pro-Russian rally that Crimea was part of Ukraine. He resigned the next day. In Simferopol, the Regional State Administration building was blockaded with hundreds of protesters, including neo-Cossacks, demanding a referendum of separation; the rally was organized by the
Crimean Front. On 26 February, outside the
Crimean parliament building in Simferopol, 4,000–5,000
Crimean Tatars and supporters of the
Euromaidan-Crimea movement faced 600–700 supporters of pro-Russian organizations and the
Russian Unity Party. Tatars leaders organised the demonstration in order to block the sitting of the Crimean parliament which is "doing everything to execute plans of separation of Crimea from Ukraine".
Supreme Council Chairman
Vladimir Konstantinov said that the Crimean parliament would not consider separation from Ukraine, and that earlier reports that parliament would hold a debate on the matter were provocations. Tatars created self-defence groups, encouraged collaboration with Russians, Ukrainians, and people of other nationalities, and called for the protection of churches, mosques, synagogues, and other important sites. By nightfall the Crimean Tatars had left; several hundred Russian Unity supporters rallied on. The
new Ukrainian government's acting Internal Affairs Minister
Arsen Avakov tasked Crimean law enforcement agencies not to provoke conflicts and to do whatever necessary to prevent clashes with pro-Russian forces; and he added "I think, that way – through a dialogue – we shall achieve much more than with standoffs". New
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) chief
Valentyn Nalyvaichenko requested that the
United Nations provide around-the-clock monitoring of the security situation in Crimea.
Russian military takeover of Crimea Russia took advantage of the uncertainty in Ukraine immediately after the ousting of Yanukovych. On 26 February,
Russian soldiers without insignia began to occupy Crimea and to blockade Ukrainian military bases. In
Simferopol, the Russian soldiers
seized the
Crimean parliament building and the Council of Ministers building.
Russian flags were raised over these buildings and barricades were erected outside them. A military checkpoint, with a Russian flag and Russian military vehicles, was set up on the main highway between Sevastopol and Simferopol. While the armed soldiers occupied the Crimean parliament building, the parliament held an emergency session. It voted to dismiss the Crimean government, and replace Prime Minister
Anatolii Mohyliov with
Sergey Aksyonov. Aksyonov belonged to the
Russian Unity party, which received only 4% of votes in the last election. Both Aksyonov and speaker
Vladimir Konstantinov stated that they viewed Viktor Yanukovych as the
de jure president of Ukraine, through whom they were able to ask Russia for help. The parliament also voted to hold a referendum on greater autonomy, set for 25 May. Historian
Andrew Wilson and journalist
Luke Harding called this the "Crimean
coup". The troops had cut all of the building's communications, and took MPs' phones as they entered. The head of parliament's information and analysis department, Olha Sulnikova, phoned journalists from inside the building, telling them 61 of the registered 64 deputies had voted for the referendum resolution and 55 for the resolution to dismiss the government. Russian FSB colonel
Igor Girkin (alias 'Strelkov'), one of the commanders of the soldiers, said in January 2015 that Crimean MPs were held at gunpoint, and were forced to support the annexation. Girkin said:"Unfortunately I did not see any support from the [Crimean] authorities in Simferopol where I was ... It was militants who collected deputies and forced them to vote. Yes, I was one of the commanders of those militants". '' uniform guarding a checkpoint at
Chonhar, on the border of mainland Ukraine and Crimea, 10 March 2014 The same day, more unmarked troops set up
security checkpoints on the
Isthmus of Perekop and the
Chonhar Peninsula, which separate Crimea from the Ukrainian mainland. They were helped by what appeared to be local
Berkut riot police, as well as Russian troops from the
31st Separate Airborne Assault Brigade dressed in Berkut uniforms. Within hours, Ukraine had been cut off from Crimea. Ukrainian TV channels became unavailable for Crimean viewers, some replaced with Russian stations. On 29 February, unmarked Russian special forces occupied Crimea's airports and communications centers. On 28 February, an estimated 1,400 Spetsnaz troops were flown in to the
Gvardeyskoye air base from Russia. On the same day, Putin assured German Chancellor
Angela Merkel in a phone call that no regular Russian soldiers are active in Crimea. On 1 March 2014, Aksyonov asked Putin for "assistance in ensuring peace and tranquillity" in Crimea. Putin promptly received authorisation from the
Federation Council of Russia for a Russian military intervention in Ukraine until the "political-social situation in the country is normalized". Ukraine's prime minister,
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, said that Russian military intervention would be the beginning of war, and Ukraine's representative told an emergency meeting of the
UN Security Council that Russia was committing "an
act of aggression against the state of Ukraine". By 2 March, Russian troops were in full control of Crimea, having deployed from the naval base in Sevastopol and reinforced by troops, armour, and helicopters from mainland Russia. At a press conference on 4 March, president Putin said that Russia had no plans to annex Crimea. He also said that it had no plans to invade Ukraine, but that it might intervene if Russians in Ukraine were threatened. Putin later acknowledged that he had ordered "work to bring Crimea back into Russia" as early as February. Defence Minister
Sergey Shoygu said Russian military actions in Crimea were undertaken by forces of the
Black Sea Fleet and were justified by a "threat to lives of Crimean civilians" and danger of "takeover of Russian military infrastructure by extremists". Ukraine complained that Russia violated the agreement under which it headquartered its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol and violated the country's
sovereignty. The United States and United Kingdom accused Russia of breaking the terms of the
Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, by which Russia, the US, and the UK had affirmed they would not use force against the
territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine. did not apply due to "circumstances resulting from the action of internal political or socio-economic factors". In March 2015, retired Russian Admiral said that, according to his information, the Russian troop deployment in Crimea included six helicopter landings and three landings of an
IL-76 with 500 troops.
Legal issues The obligations between Russia and Ukraine with regard to
territorial integrity and the prohibition of the use of force are laid down in a number of multilateral or bilateral agreements to which Russia and Ukraine are signatories.
Vladimir Putin said that Russian troops in the Crimean Peninsula were aimed "to ensure proper conditions for the people of Crimea to be able to freely express their will," whilst Ukraine and other nations argue that such intervention is a violation of
Ukraine's sovereignty. Cooperation, and Partnership again reaffirmed the inviolability of the borders between both states, According to Ukraine usage of navigation stations and troop movements were improperly covered by the treaty and were violated many times as well as related court decisions. February's troop movements were in "complete disregard" of the treaty. " and trucks after the seizure of
Perevalne military base, 9 March 2014 According to the Constitution of Russia, the admission of new federal subjects is governed by federal constitutional law (art. 65.2). Such a law was adopted in 2001, and it postulates that admission of a foreign state or its part into Russia shall be based on a mutual accord between the Russian Federation and the relevant state and shall take place pursuant to an international treaty between the two countries; moreover, it must be initiated by the state in question, not by its subdivision or by Russia. On 28 February 2014, Russian MP
Sergey Mironov, along with other members of the
Duma, introduced a bill to alter Russia's procedure for adding federal subjects. According to the bill, accession could be initiated by a subdivision of a country, provided that there is "absence of efficient sovereign state government in foreign state"; the request could be made either by subdivision bodies on their own or on the basis of a referendum held in the subdivision in accordance with corresponding national legislation. On 11 March 2014, both the
Supreme Council of Crimea and the
Sevastopol City Council adopted a
declaration of independence, which stated their intent to declare independence and request full accession to Russia should the pro-Russian option receive the most votes during the scheduled status referendum. The declaration directly referred to the
Kosovo independence precedent, by which the
Albanian-populated
Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija declared independence from Russia's ally
Serbia as the
Republic of Kosovo in 2008—a unilateral action Russia
staunchly opposed. The Russian government used
Kosovo independence precedent as a legal justification for the annexation of Crimea Many analysts saw the Crimean declaration as an overt effort to pave the way for Crimea's annexation by Russia and reject Russia's Kosovo precedent justification as being different compared to Crimea events, comparing the annexation to the
Nazi Germany's
anschluss of Austria and Czechoslovak
Sudetes instead. Crimean authorities' stated plans to declare independence from Ukraine made the Mironov bill unnecessary. On 20 March 2014, two days after the
treaty of accession was signed, the bill was withdrawn by its initiators. At its meeting on 21–22 March, the
Council of Europe's
Venice Commission stated that the Mironov bill violated "in particular, the principles of territorial integrity, national sovereignty, non-intervention in the internal affairs of another state and
pacta sunt servanda" and was therefore incompatible with
international law.
Crimean status referendum On 27 February 2014, following the takeover of its building and replacement of Ukrainian-elected officials with Russian-controlled actors by Russian special forces, the
Supreme Council of Crimea voted to hold a
referendum on 25 May, with the initial question as to whether Crimea should upgrade its autonomy within Ukraine. The referendum date was later moved from 25 May to 30 March. A Ukrainian court declared the referendum to be illegal. On 6 March, the Supreme Council moved the referendum date to 16 March and changed its scope to ask a new question: whether Crimea should apply to join Russia as a
federal subject or restore the
1992 Crimean constitution within Ukraine, which the Ukrainian government had previously invalidated. This referendum, unlike one announced earlier, contained no option to maintain the
status quo of governance under the 1998 constitution. 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". On 14 March, the Crimean status referendum was deemed unconstitutional by the
Constitutional Court of Ukraine, and a day later, the
Verkhovna Rada formally dissolved the Crimean parliament. likely to threaten escalation and stymie Ukraine's response. The referendum was held despite the opposition from the Ukrainian government. Official results reported about 95.5% of participating voters in Crimea (turnout was 83%) were in favour of seceding from Ukraine and joining Russia. Crimean Tatars mostly boycotted the referendum. A report by Evgeny Bobrov, a member of the
Russian President's Human Rights Council, suggested the official results were inflated and between 50 and 60% of Crimeans voted for the reunification with Russia, with the turnout of 30-50%, meaning that 15% to 30% of Crimeans eligible to vote voted for the Russian annexation (the support was higher in administratively separate Sevastopol). According to a survey carried out by
Pew Research Center in 2014, 54% of Crimean residents supported the right of regions to secede, 91% believed the referendum was free and fair and 88% believed that the government in Kyiv ought to recognize the results of the vote. 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.
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. 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.
Crimean proclamation of independence The
Republic of Crimea was short lived. On 17 March, following the official announcement of the
referendum results, the
Supreme Council of Crimea declared the formal independence of the Republic of Crimea, comprising the territories of both the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of
Sevastopol, which was granted
special status within the breakaway republic. The Crimean parliament declared the "partial repeal" of Ukrainian laws and began nationalising private and Ukrainian state property located on the Crimean Peninsula, including Ukrainian
ports and property of
Chornomornaftogaz. Parliament also formally requested that the
Russian government admit the breakaway republic into Russia, with Sevastopol asking to be admitted as a "city of federal significance". On the same day, the
de facto Supreme Council renamed itself the
State Council of Crimea, declared the
Russian ruble an official currency alongside the
hryvnia, and in June the Russian ruble became the only form of legal tender. Putin officially recognised the Republic of Crimea 'as a sovereign and independent state' by
decree on 17 March. On 21 March the Republic of Crimea became a federal
Subject of Russia.
Accession treaty ,
Sergey Aksyonov and
Alexey Chaly at the Kremlin, 18 March 2014 The Treaty on Accession of the Republic of Crimea to Russia was signed between representatives of the Republic of Crimea (including Sevastopol, with which the rest of Crimea briefly unified) and the Russian Federation on 18 March 2014 to lay out terms for the immediate admission of the
Republic of Crimea and
Sevastopol as
federal subjects of Russia and part of the Russian Federation. On 19 March, the
Russian Constitutional Court decided that the treaty is in compliance with the
Constitution of Russia. The treaty was ratified by the
Federal Assembly and
Federation Council by 21 March.
A Just Russia's
Ilya Ponomarev was the only
State Duma member to vote against the treaty. The
Republic of Crimea and the
federal city of Sevastopol became the 84th and 85th
federal subjects of Russia.
Armed clash and withdrawal of Ukrainian troops During
a controversial incident in Simferopol on 18 March, some Ukrainian sources said that armed gunmen that were reported to be Russian special forces allegedly stormed the base. This was contested by Russian authorities, who subsequently announced the arrest of an alleged Ukrainian sniper in connection with the killings, but later denied the arrest had occurred. 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. As of March 2014 the incident was under investigation by both the Crimean authorities and the Ukrainian military. In response to shooting, Ukraine's then acting defense minister
Ihor Tenyukh authorised Ukrainian troops stationed in Crimea to use deadly force in life-threatening situations. This increased the risk of bloodshed during any takeover of Ukrainian military installations, yet the ensuing Russian operations to seize the remaining Ukrainian military bases and ships in Crimea did not bring new fatalities, although weapons were used and several people were injured. The Russian units involved in such operations were ordered to avoid usage of deadly force when possible. 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. On 24 March, the
Ukrainian government ordered the full withdrawal of all of its armed forces from Crimea. Approximately 50% of the Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea had defected to the Russian military. On 26 March the last Ukrainian military bases and
Ukrainian Navy ships were captured by
Russian troops.
Continued occupation and integration with Russia 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. Crimea and Sevastopol switched to
Moscow Time at 10 p.m. on 29 March. On 31 March, Russia unilaterally
denounced the
Kharkiv Pact and
Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet. Putin cited "the accession of the
Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol into Russia" and resulting "practical end of
renting relationships" as his reason for the denunciation. On the same day, he signed a decree formally rehabilitating the
Crimean Tatars, who were
ousted from their lands in 1944, and the Armenian, German, Greek, and Bulgarian minority communities in the region that
Stalin also ordered removed in the 1940s. Also on 31 March 2014, the Russian
prime minister Dmitry Medvedev announced a series of programmes aimed at swiftly incorporating the territory of Crimea into Russia's
economy and
infrastructure. Medvedev announced the creation of a new ministry for Crimean affairs, and ordered Russia's top ministers who joined him there to make coming up with a development plan their top priority. On 3 April 2014, the Republic of Crimea and the city of
Sevastopol became parts of Russia's
Southern Military District. On 7 May 2015, Crimea switched its phone code system from the
Ukrainian number system to the
Russian number system. On 11 April, the
Constitution of the Republic of Crimea and City Charter of Sevastopol were adopted by their respective legislatures, coming into effect the following day in addition the new federal subjects were enumerated in a newly published revision of the Russian Constitution. On 14 April,
Vladimir Putin announced that he would open a ruble-only account with
Bank Rossiya and would make it the primary bank in the newly annexed Crimea as well as giving the right to service payments on Russia's $36billion wholesale electricity market – which gave the bank $112million annually from commission charges alone. Russia withdrew its forces from southern
Kherson in December 2014. In December 2014, and electricity supply agreement was made between Ukraine's
Ukrinterenergo and Russia's
Inter RAO that electricity would be supplied from Ukraine in return for an equivalent supply of Russian electricity to Ukraine, which resolved electricity rationing in Crimea. In July 2015, Russian prime minister,
Dmitry Medvedev, declared that Crimea had been fully integrated into Russia. Until 2016 these new subjects were grouped in the
Crimean Federal District. 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. Crimea was fully integrated into the Russian media sphere, and links with the rest of Ukraine were hardly existent. On 28 December 2018, Russia completed a high-tech security fence marking the de facto border between Crimea and Ukraine. 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. == Transition and aftermath ==