"The issue of Crimea\u2019s ownership"

- CONTENT--
The problem of Crimea’s ownership is the common name of a group of problems caused by disagreements between Russia and Ukraine regarding the ownership of those territories of the Crimean Peninsula, which are located within the administrative boundaries of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, which formed by 2014.

The prerequisites for the problem were formed with the collapse of the USSR, as a result of which an independent Ukraine was a region, the majority of whose population is ethnic Russians, where pro-Russian sentiments are strong and the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation is stationed. Throughout the 1990s, the issue of changing the status of the peninsula was raised by both the Crimean authorities and the legislative bodies of Russia, but this did not lead to a change in the statehood of Crimea. In 1997, Russia and Ukraine signed the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership, which pledged to respect the territorial integrity of each other, and in 2003 the Treaty on the State Border. According to the border line established by the treaty, Crimea is included in the territory of Ukraine. Until 2014, Russia considered Crimea as part of Ukraine and made no demands for its transfer.

In 2014, Russia annexed most of the peninsula, and since then its status has remained a subject of dispute: Russia since March 18, 2014 considers Crimea and Sevastopol subjects of the Russian Federation and does not recognize the existence of the question of ownership of these territories, and Ukraine refuses to recognize the annexation of Crimea by Russia, in which it received the support of most UN member states, and considers the peninsula its territory, which Russia temporarily occupied.

History

“Crimean question” in Russian-Ukrainian relations until 2014

Background

On October 18, 1921, the multinational Crimean ASSR was formed within the RSFSR. In 1939, the population of the Crimean ASSR was a person (49.6% Russians, 19.4% Crimean Tatars, 13.7% Ukrainians, 5.8% Jews, 4.5% Germans).

After the deportation of Crimean Tatars, Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Germans and representatives of other peoples in May-June 1944, followed by the resettlement to the territory of Crimea of several tens of thousands of residents from various regions of the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR, the Crimean ASSR was transformed into the Crimean region on June 30, 1945.

In April 1954, the Crimean region was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR with the following wording: “Taking into account the common economy, territorial proximity and close economic and cultural ties between the Crimean region and the Ukrainian SSR.” According to some Russian researchers and politicians, Sevastopol in 1954 was not formally transferred to the Ukrainian SSR as part of the Crimean region, since 1948 it was a city of republican subordination of the RSFSR. This position was also adhered to by the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, when on July 9, 1993 it adopted a resolution “On the Status of the City of Sevastopol” (see Legal Status of Sevastopol). However,