The termination includes, among other things, its recognition as Russian territory by the US. Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski rejected her, saying that Ukraine would not recognize Crimea as Russian because it would violate its constitution.
Trump peace and ironic to Zelenski saying that he had been lost three years until he lost all of Ukraine. It is not clear whether US threats are intended to push Zelenski to make territorial concessions to Russia or create a pretext for the US to cease to support Ukraine.
European, even Ukrainian officials, admit that it is unlikely that Kiev will soon regain control of Crimea. Their aim is, at best, to prevent a hasty peace agreement by which Russia will keep Crimea and other Ukrainian territories without Ukraine to secure significant guarantees for its future.
To whom does Crimea belong?
Crimea is internationally recognized as Ukrainian. Russia annexed it illegally in March 2014, in response to the so -called “Evromyidan Revolution” during which the Ukrainians had taken to the streets of Kiev against the then president, Russian -speaking Victor Yanukovic, because it withdrew the country from the EU agreement.
The countdown to Crimea began on February 27, 2014, when Russian soldiers, who did not discreetly bring their uniforms, developed throughout the peninsula to understand it and distract it from Ukraine. The Russian soldiers remained in history as “little green men” because they had their faces covered and brought no discreet to their green military uniforms, as Russia initially denied that it had invaded Crimea.
Men of Russian Special Forces, always without discreetly in their uniforms, occupied government buildings and Ukrainian military bases and cut off the peninsula from the rest of Ukraine. A pro -Russian government took power in Crimea, organized a referendum (under occupation) union with Russia and announced that 97% voted in favor of the Union (with more than 80%). A few days later, on March 18, 2014, Russia annexed Crimea.
Moscow admitted that her forces occupied the peninsula because there were “threats to the lives of the Crimean citizens” and the danger of “the Russian military installations in Crimea being occupied by extremists”.
On March 27, 2014, the UN General Assembly supported Ukraine’s territorial integrity, recognizing Crimea as an integral part of it. Of the 194 UN member states, 100 voted in favor, 11 against (Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Syria, Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Sudan, Zimbabwe and North Korea) and 58 abstained.
What is the strategic value of Crimea?
In 1991, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Russia became two separate, dominant states. Crimea – which he had given in 1954 to Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev – remained in Ukraine. But the problem was to whom the Black Sea fleet would belong to in Sevastopol, the capital of Crimea: in Russia or Ukraine?
It was finally agreed, between Moscow and Kiev in 1997, that Ukraine would rent Crimea’s naval facilities in Russia for $ 97 million a year.
Crimea has a population of just over 2 million and 78% are Russians. Its ports in the Black Sea provide easy access to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East.
What is the situation in Crimea today?
After annexing Crimea in 2014, the Russians built a bridge, the Crimea bridge or Kerch’s bridge, which, through the Kerch, joins the peninsula with the Krasnodar region in Russia. It is the longest bridge in Europe, is 19 km long, and is actually two parallel bridges, one for cars and one for trains.
Following Crimea’s annexation, the West imposed financial sanctions on Russia – some were specifically aimed at Crimea, such as the ban on cruise ships to tie in its seven ports.
Moscow banned Ukrainian parties in Crimea, leaving the Ukrainians of the peninsula without any political representation, and after Russia’s new invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the expression of Ukrainian identity in Crimea is even more dangerous.
The Russian authorities of Crimea have forced residents to obtain Russian citizenship and hand over their Ukrainian passports. Those who do not comply are fired from their work, lose their real estate, cannot travel to Ukraine or other countries and are threatened with expulsion as foreigners.
