A Russian presence has been in the Crimean peninsula, connected to the southern Black Sea coast of Ukraine, since 1783 when Russian prince Grigory Potemkin founded the port city of Sevastopol. The port served as the main harbor facilities for the Russian Navy and merchant ships in the Black Sea for voyages through the Dardanelles into the Mediterranean Sea and beyond. In 1853 Britain and France came to Turkey’s assistance in a conflict with Russia leading to a war fought primarily in Crimea through early 1856. Thus, the peninsula was important as a staging point for Russian projection of sea power. When the Soviet Union was created in the wake of World War I, the Crimea was controlled by the Russian Soviet Republic until 1954. In that year, Communist Party First Secretary Nikita Kruschev had the peninsula ceded to Ukraine in an attempt to buy support for his goal of taking over the position of Prime Minister of the USSR. He had served as head of the Communist Party in Ukraine while serious fighting took place in the late 1940s over the annexation of territories into western Ukraine. Given the bitter nature of the conflict, Kruschev thought that giving the Crimea to Ukraine would ease tensions and, at the same time, add just under a million ethnic Russians to Ukraine’s population (which already had a large Russian minority) to maintain a strong presence in the republic.
The transfer of political control was done through the guidelines laid out in the Soviet constitution. Crimea, which up until 1954 had been an “autonomous republic” within the Russian Soviet Republic, became a province of Ukraine. All went along well until 1991, when the USSR fell apart and the former Soviet Republics became independent. The Ukrainian parliament decided to restore the status of autonomous republic to Crimea. In 1997, Ukraine and the Russian Federation (formerly the Russian Soviet Republic) signed an agreement whereby the Russians kept more than 80% of its fleet (paying Ukraine for them) but maintained the right to base their Black Sea fleet I Sevastopol until 2017 (later 2042). Russia paid an annual rent in the form of cancelled Ukrainian debt and was allowed to keep 25,000 troops, artillery units, armored vehicles and 22 aircraft in Crimean territory along with five units of their fleet and control of two air bases.
Things began to go bad in Ukraine as early as 2004 over a disputed presidential election. Pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych initially won but there were immediate protests about the vote being rigged. The Supreme Court voided the vote and called for a new election, which he lost, but he won the presidency in 2010 in what was deemed a fair election. Over the next few years Ukraine explored the possibility of closer trade ties with the European Union, but when a provisional agreement was rejected in late 2013 the citizens began to protest. The economy was in shambles and there were accusations of widespread corruption within the government. 100,000 people demonstrated in the capital city of Kiev in late November, followed by 800,000 taking over the Kiev city hall and city square two weeks later. In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to ease tensions by assuming a large portion of Ukraine’s debt and lowering gas prices. Demonstrators remained in the city hall through mid-February while parliament passed an anti-demonstration law which only caused more outbreaks. The violence caused the prime minister to resign and parliament repealed the anti-demonstration law and promised amnesty to any who had been arrested under it, but opposition parties in government grew. Protestors finally abandoned city hall when the amnesty went into effect, but uprisings were occurring across the western regions of the country.
A few days later, on 18 February, more clashes erupted between protestors and police, with eighteen people being killed. That number grew to 88 three days later during riots in Kiev. Videos of the protests revealed uniformed snipers shooting into the crowds. To stop the violence President Yanukovych signed an agreement with the opposition, but that became pointless when he disappeared two days later. Parliament voted to remove him from office and to hold new elections in late May. They also voted in interim leaders for the government and banned Russian as the second official language of the country, infuriating the large Russian minority that dominated the eastern areas of the country. With Yanukovych in Russia, Putin began to prepare for intervention.
In the meantime, a secession movement began in the Crimea. At the end of February pro-Russian activists (or possibly Russian soldiers in disguise) took over key government buildings in the Crimean capital of Simferopol. Armed men in unmarked uniforms also took over airfields across the peninsula along with other military installations and communications centers as Russian military units began exercises near the border. On 1 March the Russian parliament approved Putin’s request to commit troops to the Crimea in order to protect Russian interests. An “election” was held and a pro-Russian politician was named to lead the government. The new prime minister, Sergei Aksenov, declared that Ukranian military forces in Crimea were to be under his control and anyone who refused to take his orders were to be dismissed; he then called on President Putin to assist in preserving peace in Crimea. Aksenov called for a referendum for Crimean citizens to vote on joining Russia, declaring independence, or staying with Ukraine. When the vote was held on the 16th, a reported 97% of Crimeans voted to join Russia, a result rejected by both Ukrainian and international authorities; two days later Russia and Crimea signed a treaty authorizing the absorption of Crimea into the Russian Federation
Citizens of Ukraine began choosing sides: the Ukranian government called up reserves and began receiving volunteers to resist Russian aggression while pro-Russian factions attacked government buildings in a number of cities across the country. Both Ukraine’s and Russia’s government blamed the other for provoking violence: Ukraine would defend itself from any invasion, while Russia would do what was necessary to protect ethnic Russians..
Through the month of March the United States and the European Union all condemned Russian aggression and instituted limited sanctions against certain Russian officials, though more serious sanctions were promised if Russia did not back down. On the 27th the United Nations General Assembly voted 100–11 (58 abstentions) in favor of a non-binding resolution calling for Crimea not to change its status and for Ukraine’s sovereignty to be respected.
In early April separatists in eastern Ukraine took over government buildings in three cities and called for a referendum on independence, but government authorities restored orders the next day. On the 15th Ukrainian acting president Olexander Turchynov began what he called “anti-terror” operations aimed at pro-Russian separatists, but it barely got off the ground. He tried again a week later, while Russia and Western powers agreed to send representatives to Geneva to see about easing tensions.
Up to this point confrontations between government forces and pro-Russian activists had been relatively bloodless, but that soon changed. In Odessa, 42 protestors were killed in confrontations. This motivated other separatists, who declared independence in the regional capitals of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv after demonstrations and hastily held referenda. Protests in those and other cities were led by men in unmarked military uniforms carrying Russian-made weapons. The elections for the new national government were held on the 25th as planned, and Petro Poroshenko won the presidency with almost 55% of the vote, though polling places did not open in many eastern cities.
In mid-June pro-Russian forces shot down a Ukrainian air force plane and a month later a Malaysian Airlines passenger jet flying over Ukraine was shot down, though both sides accused the other of the attack which killed almost 300 people, all from foreign countries. Through the summer clashes between Ukrainian troops and separatists (and/or Russian undercover troops) continued throughout the eastern provinces, two of which (Donetsk and Lugansk) declared themselves independent. Usually the government forces were successful in forcing back their opposition, but casualties mounted. Finally, on 5 September, a cease-fire was negotiated and within a few weeks Russian forces were reported to be withdrawing from the country. Putin ordered units deployed along the border to return to their bases. Parliamentary elections were held in October and a pro-Western majority was elected. Unfazed, separatist groups in eastern provinces held their own elections, with Russian support. Fighting continued in the provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk, the furthest east of the provinces, bordering Russia, with some 1,000 deaths claimed between the cease-fire and the end of the year, giving lie to the concept of an armistice in that region.
NATO reported an infusion of Russian troops into the provinces in December, which Putin denied. However, fighting again broke out in early January 2015 and the separatists began to gain ground. A major battle at the Donetsk airport ended in a government defeat. Ukrainian President Poroshenko claimed in the wake of this defeat that the Russians had inserted 9,000 soldiers and 500 tanks into the country to aid the insurgents. Whether or not that was the case, the separatists did make significant gains, coming to control virtually the entire Donestk and Lugansk provinces.
With the assistance of French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian and Ukrainian representatives met in Minsk on 11 February and negotiated another cease-fire. All the parties agreed to stop fighting and withdraw heavy weapons away from the front lines. For the most part this agreement has held up, with some skirmishes taking places on rare occasion. Hence, by the time of this writing, fighting still takes place in the eastern provinces and casualties still mount. The human cost of the war is debated, with a minimum of casualties claimed to have been lost by both sides numbers about 5,000 dead. Each side, of course, claims to have killed many more of the enemy, with combined claims between 20,000–30,000 killed and thousands more to have deserted. Outside sources claim that their investigations number the dead at some 9,500 collectively. On the separatist side, as many as 2,000 Russian troops are reported to have been killed. Although regarded officially as a Ukrainian civil war, the presence of Russian troops makes that designation somewhat questionable, especially since Russia took away Crimea and still controls it. Apparently, things are not good there, as a reported 100,000 people have fled the peninsula since the Russian takeover.
References:
BBC, “Ukraine Crisis Timeline,” 13 November 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26248275, 27 April 2016; Kramer, Mark, “Why did Russia Give Away Crimea Sixty Years Ago?”, Wilson Center Cold War International History Project, 29 March 2014, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/why-did-russia- give-away-crimea-sixty-years-ago, 24 February 2016; RT, TV-Novosti, “Russia’s 25,000-troop allowance & other facts you may not know about Crimea,” 6 March 2014, https://www.rt.com/news/russian-troops-crimea-ukraine-816/, 27 April 2016; United Nations, “General Assembly Adopts Resolution Calling upon States Not to Recognize Changes in Status of Crimea Region,”, GA/11493, 27 March 2014, http://www.un.org/press/en/2014/ga11493.doc.htm, 27 April 2016.