Crimea

Crimea is, geographically, a peninsula located between the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Azov. It borders the Chersonese Region (Kherson Oblast, Ukraine) to the north, the Black Sea to the south and west, and the Sea of ​​Azov to the east. Crimea is connected to Ukraine by the Perekop Isthmus, 5-7 km wide. It has a population of 2.4 million, made up mainly of ethnic Russians with significant Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar minorities. Crimea (or Tauric Peninsula, as it was called from ancient times to the early modern period) has historically been on the border between the classical world and the Pontic-Caspian steppe. Its southern fringe was settled by the Greeks and then ruled by the Persians followed by the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and eventually successor states including the Empire of Trebizond and the Principality of Theodoro. During the entirety of this period, the urban areas were Greek-speaking and eventually Eastern Christian (Eastern Orthodox). During the collapse of the Byzantine state, some cities fell into the hands of their creditor, the Republic of Genoa, until eventually all were absorbed into the rapidly growing Ottoman Empire. Throughout this time, the interior was occupied by a changing cast of nomads and invading steppe empires, such as the Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Crimean Goths, Alans, Bulgars, Huns, Khazars, Kipchaks, Mongols, and the Golden Horde. Crimea and adjoining territories were united into the Crimean Khanate, a onetime dependency of the Ottomans, during the 15th to 18th centuries, often raiding southern Russia for slaves. In 1783, Crimea was annexed by the Russian Empire as a result of the Russo-Turkish War (1768-1774). After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Crimea became an autonomous republic within the Russian SFSR in the Soviet Union. During World War II, Crimea was demoted to a Crimean Oblast and the entirety of one of its indigenous populations, the Crimean Tatars, was deported to Central Asia, an act recognized as genocide by Ukraine and three other countries. In 1954, the Soviet Union transferred Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR from the Russian SFSR. The transfer to Ukraine was carried out by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. The year 1954 coincided with the 300th anniversary of the Pereyaslav Treaty, which was signed in 1654 by representatives of the Ukrainian Cossack Hetmanate and Tsar Alexis of Russia. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine was reestablished as an independent state in 1991, and most of the peninsula was reorganized as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, with the city of Sevastopol retaining its special status within Ukraine. The 1997 Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet split the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet and allowed Russia to continue basing its fleet in Crimea: both the Ukrainian Naval Forces and the Black Sea Fleet of Russia would have its headquarters in Sevastopol. Ukraine extended Russia's lease of the naval facilities under the 2010 Kharkiv Pact in exchange for more natural gas at a discount. In late February 2014, following the Revolution of Dignity that ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russian troops were deployed in Crimea, occupying government buildings. Russia formally annexed Crimea on March 18, 2014, incorporating the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol. Despite its annexation, Crimea was considered by most countries in the world, in a UN resolution of March 2014, as part of Ukraine. In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Russia agreed with the UK and the US to respect Ukraine's borders and not threaten them with force, in return for Kiev transferring its Soviet-era nuclear weapons to Moscow.