2. The Russian coat of arms is placed on the gate of the Ukrainian navy March 19, 2014.

3. Control of Crimea has shifted many times throughout its history. The Black Sea
peninsula had at one point or another been home to Greeks, Scythians, Goths,
Huns, Golden Horde Tatars and the Mongols, just to name a few.
The Russian Empire wrested control of Crimea from the Ottomans and French
and British armies during the Crimean War (1853–1856). Sevastopol was the site
of bloody, protracted sieges during both the Crimean War and World War II,
when the city held out against Nazi forces for eight months from October 1941
until July 1942.
After the Soviet Army finally drove out the Germans in 1944, Joseph Stalin’s
government forcibly relocated the entire population of Crimean Tatars to Central
Asia for supposedly collaborating with the Nazis.
During the height of the Soviet Union, on February 19, 1954, Nikita Khrushchev
transferred the Crimean Oblast from Russia to Ukraine, largely a symbolic
gesture at the time.
Russia’s historic ties to Crimea and its economic and strategic interest has put
the territory at the heart of East-West conflict in Ukraine ever since.

4. A portrait of Crimea

5. 1855: Victorious soldiers (Zouaves) pose after the taking of Malakoff in the Crimea. (Photo by Felice A Beato/Getty Images)

6. 25th October 1854: Charge of the heavy cavalry at Balaklava, in the Crimea. Original Artwork: Engraving by J J Crewe. (Photo by
Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

7. The British 4th Light Dragoons encamped in the Crimea, circa 1855. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

8. The Crimean War (1853 – 1856) ensnared Russia, the Ottoman Empire, France, Britain and Sardinia.CreditHulton-Deutsch
Collection

9. 1855 - Group of Tatars at
work repairing roadway in
Balaklava; wooden hut,
"Store 14th Regiment", in the
background. (Roger Fenton
Crimean War photograph
collection, Library of
Congress Prints and
Photographs Division)

10. A French vivandiere, or cantiniere, with French soldiers in the Crimea during the Crimean War, 1855. Vivandieres were women
attached to regiments as canteen keepers and as unofficial nursing staff. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

11. circa 1855: Officers of the 89th Regiment, Princess Victoria's Royal Irish Fusiliers, at Cathcart's Hill in the Crimea. (Photo by Hulton
Archive/Getty Images)

12. Massandra, Ukraine: A picture taken at the beginning of the 19th century shows the last Russian Tsar and founder of the
Massandra winery Nicolas II (L) walking along his vineyards in Massandra, not far from the Crimean resort of Yalta. (Massandra
Winery /AFP/Getty Images)

13. After the defeat of the White movement in October 1920, Crimea was conquered by the Red Army and incorporated into the
RUSSIAN SFSR as the Autonomous Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic. In the Indian-held Crimea, the Bolsheviks carried out a
mass terror, killing, according to different sources, from 20 to 120 thousand people.

14. A group of Ukrainian peasants
at Yalta, Ukraine, in the former
Soviet Union, July 1930.
(Photo by Topical Press
Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty
Images)

15. As the German invasion
of the Ukraine
continues, soldiers of
the invading Wehrmacht
troops are seen in the
cover of a shell-marked
wall, at an unknown
location on the Crimean
peninsula, in November
1941.

16. In the autumn of 1941 German occupation of Crimea began. Photo: German soldiers are monitoring the Soviet positions of trenches
on the perekop isthmus.

17. 22nd November 1941: Locals watch
as a German column passes through
the city of Simferopol, the Crimean
capital, which they had captured on 2
November. (Photo by Keystone/Getty
Images)

18. As the German invasion of
the southern Ukraine
continues, soldiers of an
advance division are seen at
an unknown village,
somewhere between the
Crimean Mountains and the
Black Sea, on March 12,
1941. A military convoy is
moving down a street in the
background. AP Photo)

19. This picture shows Nazi Stuka bombers in flight heading towards their target over coastal territory between Dniepr and Crimea,
towards the Gate of the Crimea on Nov. 6, 1941. Apparently the narrow neck of the Russian black-sea Peninsula ris where the
Germans are reported to be steadily pushing forward. (AP Photo)

20. Soviet troops in Kerch, in Crimea, on Dec. 1, 1941. CreditYevgeny Khaldei, via Corbis

21. Sebastopol in the first and last
time it was used superheavy 800-
mm gun "Dora", which weighed
more than 1,000 tons. It was
secretly transported from
Germany and secretly taken to a
special shelter carved into the
rock mass in the vicinity of
Bakhchisarai. Instrument came
into operation in early June and
released in total, fifty three 7-ton
projectile.

22. In early July 1942, Soviet troops were forced to leave Sevastopol, and then the entire peninsula. Their losses amounted to more
than 200 thousand people. picture: German soldiers in Sevastopol destroyed.

23. A German signboard at the
entrance to the seafront in
Sevastapol. A relic from the recent
past when the Germans briefly
ruled

24. The bodies of two fallen Soviet soldiers lie at roadside, while a truck of the Romanian Army, with an artillery gun in tow, advances
towards the city of Kerch, in June 1942, during the Battle of the Crimea in World War II. (AP Photo)

25. The rock-like defence of Sevastopol, the Malta of the Crimea, on June 12, 1942, shows no signs of weakening under a new all-out
offensive by General von Mannheim’s armies. Symbolic of the heroic garrison is this Russian girl sniper, Lyudmila Pavlichenko,
who has killed by her accurate shooting the magnificent total of 300 Germans before Sevastopol. (AP Photo)

26. October 1942: German troops making a dash to escape in the Crimea are cut off by Russian forces. An armoured personnel carrier
is seen rushing through a burning Russian village on their way to the Dnieper River. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

27. circa 1944: Germans in the Crimea making their escape from the approaching Russians. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

28. A column of German POW in the Crimea. 1944.

29. Captured German POW in the Crimea. 1944

30. In April 1944, the liberation of Crimea. Crimean operation resulted in the complete defeat of the German 17th Army, which only
irretrievable losses in the fighting were more than 120 thousand people. In the photo: a partisan who participated in the liberation of
Crimea. Simeiz village on the southern coast of the Crimean peninsula. 1944. Author: Pavel Trochkine.

31. In May 1944, were deported from Crimea 183 thousand Tatars. Basically - to Uzbekistan. Officially, the cause of deportation were
declared facts collaboration and cooperation much of the Crimean Tatar population during the German occupation of the Crimea.
20,000 Crimean Tatars (one third of military age) wore uniforms of the Third Reich. Also suffered deportation Crimean Armenians,
Bulgarians and Greeks.

32. February 1945: American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 - 1945), right, with Admiral William D. Leahy (1875 - 1959)
and General George C. Marshall (1880 - 1950) at the conference in Yalta, in the Crimea. Russian premier Marshal Joseph Stalin
(1879 - 1953), left of centre at the table, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965), with his back to the camera, are
also amongst those present at the conference. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

33. President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Marshal Stalin, accompanied by Foreign Secretaries, Chiefs of Staff and
other Advisors, met at Yalta in the Crimea in February 1945. (AP Photo)

34. With their foreign secretaries behind them, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet
Premier Josef Stalin sit on the patio of Livadia Palace, Yalta, Crimea, Feb. 4, 1945. Standing, from left: Foreign Sec. Anthony Eden,
Sec. of State Edward R. Stettinius, and Foreign Commissar Vyasheslav Molotov. (AP Photo)

35. circa 1950: A
shady bus stop in
Yalta. (Photo by
Three Lions/Getty
Images)

36. Some of 100 thousand Tatars, (Turkic ethnic group) who returned to their native land, stare from behind a barbed wire fence in a
ìghettoî in Crimea on Sunday, Oct. 30, 1990, which they built with official permission near small village Koreis in Cremea, the
slogan reads Motherland or death. (AP Photo/Vladimir Lagrange)

37. Black Sea Fleet sailor adjusts a former Soviet navy flag atop a fleet submarine, Wednesday, March 20, 1996 at the Sevastopol naval
base, the Crimea, Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine so far have failed to divide their shares of the fleet ships, which still carry old Soviet
naval flags along with Russian ones. (AP Photo/Sergei Volkov)

38. Crimea, Ukraine - August 18: Sunbathers lay out on the rugged beach of Yalta August 18, 2003 in Crimea, Ukraine. After the
number of annual visitors to the Black Sea peninsula dropped from 8 million in the late Soviet era to just 3 million in the mid 1990's,
about 4.5 million vacationers traveled to Crimea in 2002. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)

39. Sevastopol, Ukraine - August 15: Russian sailors tend to a "Varshavyanka" submarine August 15, 2003 in Sevastopol, Crimea in
the Ukraine. Sevastopol is the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Russia and the Ukraine have an agreement keeping the
base in Sevastopol through 2017. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)

40. Sevastopol, Ukraine : Russian sailors linger on a street August 15, 2003 in Sevastopol, Crimea in the Ukraine. Sevastopol is the
main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Russia and the Ukraine have an agreement keeping the base in Sevastopol through
2017. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)

41. Crimean Tatars wipe their tears at a mourning rally during the 60th anniversary of deportation of ethnic Tatars under Soviet dictator
Josef Stalin, in the Crimean capital of Simferopol, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 18, 2004. Thousands of people gathered in Simferopol
main square to honor the memory of victims of the Soviet regime (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

42. Lenin Square in Yalta, Crimea May 15, 2010

43. Crimea 2010:Chords of friendship bind accordionist Olesya Kamovich and comrades, who meet Sundays in Sevastopol to sing.

44. Crimea 2010:To remember the sacrifice of fallen soldiers is viewed as a holy duty in Sevastopol, which endured a 247-day-long
siege by Hitler's army in 1941-42. Yuri Perov, a Ukrainian naval cadet, takes the bus to his barracks after rehearsal for the Victory
Day parade.

45. An inhabitant of Balaklava after taking a swim at the public concrete beach.Balaklava, Crimea 2010

46. Popular among families with children, Santa Barbara, part of the Utes village (also called Utios), is a picturesque strip along the
marvelous rocky Crimean coastline.Utes, Crimea 2010

47. In Sevastopol, Russian and Ukrainian veterans march proudly together to celebrate the annual Victory Day festivities. The
persistence of memory is on parade on May 9 when Russian and Ukrainian troops, citizens, and veterans of the Soviet Army honor
those who helped defeat Nazi Germany. Sevastopol, Crimea 2010

48. The setting sun reflects off of several Russian Black Sea Fleet warships anchored in the bay of Sevastopol. During the Day of the
black Sea Fleet they took part in a in the port of Sevastopol. Sevastopol, Crimea 2010

50. Russia's President Vladimir Putin addresses the audience during a rally and concert called "We are together" to support the
annexation of Ukraine's Crimea to Russia, at the Red Square in central Moscow, March 18, 2014. Reuters/Maxim Shemetov

51. People attend a rally called "We are together" to support the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea to Russia in Red Square in central
Moscow, March 18, 2014. The flags display portraits of Putin and read "We are together!" Reuters/Maxim Shemetov

52. Pro-Kremlin activist hold Russian flags near a monument to Red Army soldier as they rally in the southern Russian city of
Stavropol, on March 18, 2014, to celebrate the incorporation of Crimea. President Vladimir Putin pushed today every emotional
button of the collective Russian psyche as he justified the incorporation of Crimea, citing everything from ancient history to Russia's
demand for respect to Western double standards. AFP Photo / Danil Semyonov /AFP/Getty Images

53. March 18: An elderly woman holds a calendar depicting former Soviet leader Josef Stalin while watching a broadcast of Russian
President Vladimir Putin's speech on Crimea in Sevastopol, Crimea, as thousands of pro-Russian people gathered to watch the
address. (Vadim Ghirda/Associated Press)

54. An elderly woman holding a calendar depicting Soviet leader Josef Stalin celebrates after watching a broadcast of Russian
President Vladimir Putin's speech on Crimea in Sevastopol, Crimea, Tuesday, March 18, 2014 as thousands of pro-Russian
people gathered to watch the address.Fiercely defending Russia's move to annex Crimea, Putin said Russia had to respond to
what he described as a western plot to take Ukraine into its influence. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

55. A woman jumps for joy during a broadcast of Russian President Vladimir Putin's address to the Federal Assembly in Sevastopol,
March 18, 2014. Reuters/Baz Ratner

56. People watch a broadcast of Russian President Vladimir Putin's address to the Federal Assembly in Sevastopol, March 18,
2014. Reuters/Baz Ratner

57. Crowd supporting Crimea's reunification with Russia in downtown Moscow

58. Participants in a rally in support of Crimea joining Russia, hold Russian flags in Red Square in Moscow, Tuesday, March 18, 2014.
With a sweep of his pen, President Vladimir Putin added Crimea to the map of Russia on Tuesday, describing the move as correcting
past injustice and responding to what he called Western encroachment upon Russia's vital interests. Photo: Pavel Golovkin, AP

59. People gather at a square to watch a televised address by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Federation Council, in Sevastopol,
Crimea, Tuesday, March 18, 2014. Putin on Tuesday fiercely defended Russia's move to annex Crimea saying Crimea's vote on Sunda
to join Russia was in line with "democratic norms and international law." Photo: Andrew Lubimov, AP

60. Cossacks attend a rally to support the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea to Russia in the Russian southern city of Stavropol, March
18, 2014. Reuters /Eduard Korniyenko

61. People watch a broadcast of Russian President Vladimir Putin's address to the Federal Assembly, in Sevastopol, March 18, 2014.
The sign reads as "Russian our home". Reuters /Baz Ratner

62. Cossacks attend a rally to support the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea to Russia in the Russian southern city of Stavropol, March
18, 2014. Reuters /Eduard Korniyenko

63. Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the Federal Assembly in the Kremlin in Moscow, Tuesday, March 18, 2014. With a
sweep of his pen, President Vladimir Putin added Crimea to the map of Russia on Tuesday, describing the move as correcting
past injustice and a response to what he called Western encroachment upon Russia's vital interests. Photo: Alexei Druzhinin, AP

64. Russia's President Vladimir Putin addresses a joint session of parliament on Crimea in the Kremlin in Moscow, on March 18, 2014
(AFP Photo/Alexei Nikolsky)

65. March 18: Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Crimean leaders, Speaker of the Crimean legislature Vladimir
Konstantinov, second left, Crimean Premier Sergei Aksyonov, left, and Sevastopol mayor Alexei Chalyi, right, after signing a treaty for
Crimea to join Russia, in the Kremlin in Moscow. Putin described the move as the restoration of historic injustice and a necessary
response to what he called the Western encroachment on Russia vital interests. (Sergei Ilnitsky/Associated Press)

66. Russia's President Vladimir Putin, Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov, Crimean parliament speaker Vladimir Konstantionov
and Alexei Chaly, Sevastopol's new de facto mayor, sign a treaty on the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula becoming part of Russia in
the Kremlin in Moscow , on March 18, 2014. AFP Photo /Ria-novosti / Pool / Alexey Druzhinin /AFP/Getty Images

68. end
cast A portrait of Crimea
images credit www.
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