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Russia's war against Ukraine began with the annexation of Crimea on 27 February 2014. On that day, Russian special forces without any uniform insignia appeared in Crimea, quickly taking control of strategic, military and political institutions.
Feb 20, 2024 · Ten years ago Russia annexed Crimea, paving the way for war in Ukraine. Russia’s annexation of the peninsula was not recognised by any nation except Moscow. 28:30. By Mansur Mirovalev. 20...
- 29 min
- Mansur Mirovalev
Mar 17, 2024 · Ten years since its illegal annexation, Crimea is a template for newly occupied parts of Ukraine. By Vasco Cotovio, Clare Sebastian and Yulia Kesaieva, CNN. 8 minute read. Published 12:00 AM...
- 4 min
- Overview
- HISTORY Vault: Stalin: Ruler of the Soviet Empire
The peninsula has long loomed large for Russian and Soviet leaders.
When Russia signed the Treaty of Paris in 1856, accepting defeat in the Crimean War—which had decimated its military and ruined its economy—it agreed to dismantle its naval base in the port city of Sevastopol. These were the terms demanded by Britain, France and their allies, who sought to eliminate Russia as a military threat in the Black Sea.
But the concession didn’t last long.
Russia began to rebuild Sevastopol during the Franco-Prussian War, in 1870. And throughout history, Russian leaders would return to Crimea again and again. After Germany’s bombing of Crimea during World War II, much of Sevastopol was in ruins. But Joseph Stalin declared the port a “hero city” and ordered it restored to its former neoclassical beauty.
Indeed, the Crimean peninsula has loomed large for Russian leaders ever since Russian Tsarina Catherine the Great annexed it from the Ottoman Empire in 1783. The strategically located peninsula, which is officially part of Ukraine, has given Russia military leverage not only in the Black Sea, but the greater Mediterranean region. After the fall of the Soviet Union, a 1997 treaty with Ukraine allowed Russia to keep its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, under a lease that has been extended until 2042.
But in 2014, Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in an illegal move that violated the territorial integrity of the former Soviet republic, and sparked a war that has displaced nearly 2 million people and destroyed the country’s infrastructure. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justified the aggression, in part, by asserting that Crimea is mostly comprised of ethnic Russians.
The Iron Curtain parts for a portrait of Joseph Stalin, the Russian dictator who ruled supreme over the Soviet Union from 1929-1953. Through methods of fear and intimidation, as well as death, millions of his own citizens died under his regime.
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- 2 min
Mar 13, 2024 · On March 16, 2014, an illegal referendum was held in Crimea as unmarked Russian soldiers, supported by some of the peninsula’s ethnic Russian population, seized public buildings and military...
Mar 26, 2024 · Ten years since its annexation, Crimea serves as a grim warning to any Ukrainian lands that fall under Russian occupation. Published: March 26, 2024 1:02pm EDT.
Sep 29, 2022 · Sept. 29, 2022. President Vladimir V. Putin declared on Friday that some 40,000 square miles of eastern and southern Ukraine would become part of Russia — an annexation broadly denounced by the...
