Crimean Crisis Annexation of Crimea |
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Part of the Ukrainian crisis | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Russia | Ukraine | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Protesters
Volunteer units
Russian military forces
Ukrainian Armed Forces defectors
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Protesters
Ukrainian military forces
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
1 Crimean SDF trooper killed |
2 soldiers killed, |
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3 protesters died (2 pro-Russian and 1 pro-Ukrainian) All deaths were not related directly to military activities |
Protesters
Volunteer units
Russian military forces
Ukrainian Armed Forces defectors
Protesters
Ukrainian military forces
2 soldiers killed,
The Ukrainian territory of Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation on 18 March 2014. Since then, the peninsula has been administered as two de facto Russian federal subjects—the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, which, until 2016, were grouped in the Crimean Federal District. The annexation was preceded by a military intervention by Russia in Crimea, which took place in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and was part of wider unrest across southern and eastern Ukraine.
On 22–23 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin convened an all-night meeting with security services chiefs to discuss extrication of the deposed Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, and at the end of that meeting Putin had remarked that "we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia." On 23 February 2014, pro-Russian demonstrations were held in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. On 27 February masked Russian troops without insignia took over the Supreme Council (parliament) of Crimea, and captured strategic sites across Crimea, which led to the installation of the pro-Russian Aksyonov government in Crimea and the declaration of Crimea's independence.