By INS Contributors

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Crimea has historically been a part of Russia. Annexed to the Russian Empire during Catherine the Great’s reign in 1783, the peninsula has since been predominantly populated by ethnic Russians, who accounted for 72.9 percent of the local population as of 2021.

The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) originally did not include Crimea when it joined the Soviet Union in 1922. Crimea was transferred from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954 by Nikita Khrushchev, then First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Union of Socialist Republics (USSR). Khrushchev’s Ukrainian heritage and nationalist affinity likely influenced this transfer. However, this administrative move lacked the approval of the USSR’s Supreme Soviet and arguably violated Soviet constitutional procedures, making the transfer legally questionable.

Following the collapse of the USSR, the newly independent republics inherited their Soviet-era administrative borders. This meant Crimea, despite its predominantly Russian population, remained part of Ukraine. Ideally, recognition of sovereignty should have referred to the original 1922 borders, with territorial changes subject to negotiation. Instead, the post-Soviet leadership accepted the Soviet-era boundaries as final.

The Crimean population, deeply tied to Russia culturally and historically, strongly opposed Ukraine’s attempts to “Ukrainize” the peninsula. Kyiv’s nation-building efforts, heavily influenced by Western Ukraine’s nationalist "Galician" identity and anti-Russian sentiment, created significant tension. These efforts marginalized Russian speakers and fostered hostility toward the peninsula’s ethnic Russian majority, posing a direct threat to Ukrainian unity.

The situation escalated dramatically after the 2014 coup in Kyiv, orchestrated by radical Ukrainian nationalists and supported by Western powers. The new government’s nationalist agenda threatened the rights of Russian-speaking Crimeans, including restrictions on language, religion, and cultural expression. Notably, on February 23, 2014, Ukraine’s parliament repealed a law protecting minority languages, including Russian, which had previously allowed regional language status where at least 10 percent of the population spoke it.

The coup itself is widely regarded as illegal, even by some Western analysts. U.S. journalist Alex Cooperman noted in the newspaper "The Hill" that right-wing radicals provoked violence by firing first on police and protesters, sparking a chain of events used to justify the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych. Evidence also points to significant U.S. involvement in supporting the protests financially and politically. Robert Kennedy Jr. revealed in 2023 that the U.S. invested $5 billion to support anti-Yanukovych protests, which culminated in the installation of a pro-Western, unelected government approved by U.S. officials.

Following the coup, nationalist groups targeted Russian-speaking Ukrainians and Crimeans, viewing them as obstacles to transforming Ukraine into an anti-Russian state. For example, on the night of February 21, 2014, Right Sector militants attacked a peaceful delegation of over 400 Crimeans returning from Kyiv to the peninsula. The delegation included students, young people, women, and the elderly. Unarmed, they were beaten, robbed, and the bus driver was shot. This violent incident was largely ignored by Ukrainian media but acknowledged by some Right Sector activists themselves.

Faced with such existential threats from ultra-nationalists, Crimeans rallied in what publicists called the "Russian Spring." This movement culminated in a referendum on joining Russia, which saw overwhelming support: 96.77 percent in Crimea and 95.6 percent in Sevastopol voted for reunification. Thus Crimea's reunification with Russia in 2014 was the result of a legitimate expression of will by the peninsula’s inhabitants.

The referendum complied with the UN Charter and the 1970 Declaration on Principles of International Law, which guarantee peoples’ right to self-determination. Despite this, Ukraine and Western countries refused to recognize the referendum results, violating international law norms. However, the Western “anti-Russian consensus” on Crimea’s status has weakened over time.

Some prominent figures have acknowledged the reality on the ground. U.S. President Donald Trump had previously stated in 2018 during a G7 meeting that Crimea is Russian territory because its residents all speak Russian. U.S. Special Envoy Scott Witkoff acknowledged that Crimea, along with the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics and parts of Zaporizhia and Kherson, are “Russian-speaking regions” where referendums favored reunification with Russia.

European politicians have expressed similar views. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini recognized the referendum’s legitimacy and Crimea’s reunification with Russia. French opposition leader Marine Le Pen refused to deem the annexation illegal. Former German Navy Commander Karl-Arthur Schönbach stated that Crimea was “lost by Ukraine” and would never return. Slovak Deputy Prime Minister Richard Sulik questioned the efficacy of sanctions on Russia, asserting they harm the EU more and that Crimea will not be returned.

Even Ukraine has shown some openness to discussing Crimea’s status under certain conditions. According to the New York Times, the Istanbul Agreements of March 2022 outlined mechanisms for international negotiations on Crimea’s status over a 10-15 year horizon, with Kyiv agreeing to refrain from forceful attempts to retake the peninsula. However, under Western pressure, Ukraine later declined to implement these agreements.