Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in the context of "Russo-Ukrainian War"

Yalta (Ukrainian and Russian: Ялта) is a resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, and is considered part of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. However, it is controlled de facto by Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014 and regards the town as part of the Republic of Crimea. According to the most recent census, its population was 76,746 (2014 Census).

The city is located on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Yalita (Greek: Γιαλός, romanized: Gialós [ʝaˈlos̠]). It is said to have been founded by Greek settlers who were looking for a safe shore on which to land. It is situated on a deep bay facing south towards the Black Sea, surrounded by the mountain range Ai-Petri. It has a humid subtropical climate and is surrounded by numerous vineyards and orchards.

Sevastopol (/ˌsɛvəˈstoʊpəl, sɪˈvæstəpoʊl/ SEV-ə-STOH-pəl, siv-AST-ə-pohl), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base throughout its history. Since the city's founding in 1783, it has been a major base for Russia's Black Sea Fleet. During the Cold War of the 20th century, it was a closed city. The total administrative area is 864 square kilometres (334 sq mi) and includes a significant amount of rural land. The urban population, largely concentrated around Sevastopol Bay, is 479,394, and the total population is 547,820.

Sevastopol, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, and under the Ukrainian legal framework, it is administratively one of two cities with special status (the other being Kyiv). However, it has been occupied by Russia since 27 February 2014, before Russia annexed Crimea on 18 March 2014 and gave it the status of a federal city of Russia. Both Ukraine and Russia consider the city administratively separate from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the Republic of Crimea, respectively. The city's population has an ethnic Russian majority and a substantial minority of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars.

Simferopol (/ˌsɪmfəˈroʊpəl/ SIM-fər-OH-pəl), also known as Aqmescit, is the second-largest city on the Crimean Peninsula. The city, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognized as part of Ukraine, but controlled by Russia. It is considered the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

Since 2014 it has been under the de facto control of Russia, which annexed Crimea that year and regards Simferopol as the capital of the Republic of Crimea.

The Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine are areas of southern and eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russia as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian War and the ongoing invasion. In Ukrainian law, they are defined as the "temporarily occupied territories". As of 2024, Russia occupies almost 20% of Ukraine and about 3 to 3.5 million Ukrainians are estimated to be living under occupation; since the invasion, the occupied territories lost roughly half of their population. The United Nations Human Rights Office reports that Russia is committing severe human rights violations in occupied Ukraine, including arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture, crackdown on peaceful protest and freedom of speech, enforced Russification, passportization, indoctrination of children, and suppression of Ukrainian language and culture.

The occupation began in 2014 with Russia's invasion and annexation of Crimea, and its de facto takeover of Ukraine's Donbas during a war in eastern Ukraine. In 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion. However, due to fierce Ukrainian resistance and logistical challenges (e.g. the stalled Russian Kyiv convoy), the Russian Armed Forces retreated from northern Ukraine in early April. In September 2022, Ukrainian forces launched the Kharkiv counteroffensive and liberated most of that oblast. Another southern counteroffensive resulted in the liberation of Kherson that November.

The Isthmus of Perekop, literally Isthmus of the Trench (Ukrainian: Перекопський перешийок; transliteration: Perekops'kyi pereshyiok; Russian: Перекопский перешеек; transliteration: Perekopskiy peresheek, Crimean Tatar: Or boynu, Turkish: Orkapı; Greek: Τάφρος; transliteration: Taphros), is the narrow, 5–7 kilometres (3.1–4.3 mi) wide strip of land that connects the Crimean Peninsula to the mainland of Ukraine. The isthmus projects between the Black Sea to the west and the Syvash to the east. The isthmus takes its name of "Perekop" from the Tatar fortress of Or Qapi.

The border between Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Kherson Oblast runs through the northern part of the isthmus. Since the start of the Russian military occupation and subsequent annexation of Crimea in 2014, this is also the de facto northern border of the Russian Republic of Crimea. The cities of Perekop, Armiansk, Suvorove (Crimea) [uk] and Krasnoperekopsk are situated on the isthmus. The North Crimean Canal ran through the isthmus, supplying Crimea with fresh water from the Dnieper River. Ukraine closed the canal in 2014, and the water supply was only partially replaced by other local and Russian sources.

The Crimean Bridge (Russian: Крымский мост, romanized: Krymskiy most, IPA: [ˈkrɨmskʲij most]; Ukrainian: Кримський міст, romanized: Krymskyi mist), also called Kerch Strait Bridge or Kerch Bridge, is a pair of parallel bridges, one for a four-lane road and one for a double-track railway, spanning the Kerch Strait between the Taman Peninsula of Krasnodar Krai in Russia and the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea. Built by the Russian Federation after its annexation of Crimea at the start of 2014, the bridge cost ₽227.92 billion (US$3.7 billion) and has a length of 19 km (12 mi), making it the longest bridge in Europe and the longest bridge ever constructed by Russia.

In January 2015 the multibillion-dollar construction contract for the bridge was awarded to Arkady Rotenberg's Stroygazmontazh. Construction beganin February 2016. The road bridge was inaugurated by Russian president Vladimir Putin on 15 May 2018. It opened for cars on 16 May and for trucks on 1 October. The rail bridge was inaugurated on 23 December 2019 and the first scheduled passenger train crossed the bridge two days later. The bridge was opened for freight trains on 30 June 2020. A record amount of traffic, totalling 36,393 cars, was recorded on 15 August 2020.

Krasnodar Krai (Russian: Краснода́рский край, romanized: Krasnodarskiy kray, [krəsnɐˈdarskʲɪj kraj]) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), located in the North Caucasus region in Southern Russia and is administratively a part of the Southern Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Krasnodar. The third most populous federal subject in Russia, it had a population of 5,838,273 as of the 2021 Census.

Krasnodar Krai is formally and informally referred to as Kuban (Russian: Кубань), a term denoting the historical region of Kuban situated between the Sea of Azov and the Kuban River which is predominantly within the krai. It is bordered by Rostov Oblast to the north, Stavropol Krai to the east, Karachay-Cherkessia to the south-east. Adygea is an enclave entirely within the krai. Krasnodar Krai shares an international border with Georgia and borders annexed Crimea to the west, across the Kerch Strait.

In 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union transferred the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. The territory had been recognized within the Soviet Union as having "close ties" to the Ukrainian SSR, and the transfer commemorated the Union of Russia and Ukraine Tercentenary.

Amidst the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Ukrainian SSR seceded from the Soviet Union and Ukraine continued to exercise sovereignty over the territory as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Russia did not dispute the Ukrainian administration of Crimea for just over two decades, but retracted this stance on 18 March 2014, when Crimea was annexed by Russia after coming under Russian military occupation.

Russia, the largest country in the world by area, has international land borders with fourteen sovereign states as well as two narrow maritime boundaries with the United States and Japan. There are also two breakaway states bordering Russia, namely Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The country has an internationally recognized land border running 22,407 kilometres (13,923 mi) in total, and has the second-longest land border of any country in the world, after China (22,457 kilometres (13,954 mi)).

The borders of the Russian Federation (formerly the Russian SFSR) were mostly drawn since 1956 (save for minor border changes, e.g., with China), and have remained the same after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in a move that remains internationally unrecognized, but which altered de facto borders with Ukraine. In 2022, Russia further annexed Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts further changing de facto borders with Ukraine.

The Russia–Ukraine border is the de jure international boundary between Russia and Ukraine. Over land, the border spans five Russian oblasts and five Ukrainian oblasts. Due to the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in early 2014, the de facto border between Russia and Ukraine is different from the legal border recognized by the United Nations. As of 2024, Russia is militarily occupying a significant portion of Ukraine, and Ukraine is militarily occupying a very small portion of Russia.

According to a 2016 statement by Viktor Nazarenko, the head of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, the Ukrainian government did not have control over 409.3 kilometres (254.3 mi) of the international border with Russia. This stretch of land was formerly controlled by pro-Russian separatists under the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic (see War in Donbas), both of which were annexed by Russia in September 2022, seven months after the beginning of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine has also not had authority over the Kerch Strait since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea; the Ukrainian administration was pushed out of Crimea and Russian checkpoints were set up at the boundary with Kherson Oblast.