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 Black Sea is a marginal sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The Black Sea is supplied by major rivers, principally the Danube, Dnieper and Dniester. Consequently, while six countries have a coastline on the sea, its drainage basin includes parts of 24 countries in Europe.
The Black Sea, not including the Sea of Azov, covers 436,400 km (168,500 sq mi), has a maximum depth of 2,212 m (7,257 ft), and a volume of 547,000 km (131,000 cu mi).Most of its coasts ascend rapidly.These rises are the Pontic Mountains to the south, bar the southwest-facing peninsulas, the Caucasus Mountains to the east, and the Crimean Mountains to the mid-north.In the west, the coast is generally small floodplains below foothills such as the Strandzha; Cape Emine, a dwindling of the east end of the Balkan Mountains; and the Dobruja Plateau considerably farther north. The longest east–west extent is about 1,175 km (730 mi). Important cities along the coast include (clockwise from the Bosporus) the northern suburbs of Istanbul, Burgas, Varna, Constanța, Odesa, Yalta, Kerch, Yevpatoria, Sevastopol, Novorossiysk, Sochi, Poti, Batumi, Rize, Trabzon, Ordu, Simferopol, Samsun and Zonguldak.
The Republic of Crimea is a republic of Russia, comprising most of the Crimean Peninsula, but excluding Sevastopol. Its territory corresponds to the pre-2023 territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, a de jure subdivision of Ukraine. Russia occupied and annexed the peninsula in 2014, although the annexation remains internationally unrecognized.
The capital and largest city located within its borders is Simferopol, which is the second-largest city on the Crimean Peninsula. As of the 2021 Russian census, the Republic of Crimea had a population of 1,934,630.
Krasnoperekopsk (Russian: Красноперекопск) or Yany Kapu (Ukrainian: Яни Капу; Crimean Tatar: Yañı Qapu) is a city in Crimea. Following the 2014 annexation of Crimea, it was incorporated into Russia's Republic of Crimea. However, a majority of countries recognises the territory as part of Ukraine within the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. It is the administrative center of Krasnoperekopsk Raion. Administratively is not a part of the raion (district) and is incorporated separately as a town of regional significance. It has a population of 25,026 as of 2025.
It is located on the southern part of the Perekop Isthmus, on the shore of the Stare Lake, and about 124 kilometres (77 mi) from the Crimean capital, Simferopol. It lies on the Dzhankoi-Kherson railroad line (one of the two railroad lines connecting the Crimea and the rest of the continent).
The Crimean Federal District (Russian: Кры́мский федера́льный о́круг, romanized: Krymskiy federal'nyy okrug) was a federal district of Russia. It was established on March 21, 2014 after the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. The federal district included both the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol, both recognized as part of Ukraine by most of the international community. Ukraine considers the area, along with some other areas, as temporarily occupied territories.
Oleg Belaventsev was appointed the presidential envoy, and the administrative centre of the federal district was Simferopol.
Simferopol International Airport is an airport located in Simferopol, Crimea. Since the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014, the airport is only used for flights to and from Russian airports due to limited international recognition of the annexation. As of 24 February 2022, all flights are suspended due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On 14 May 2015, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted to rename it Amet-khan Sultan International Airport in memory of Amet-khan Sultan, despite that Russia occupied Crimea and controlled the airport since 2014. Another airport named after Amet-khan Sultan is Uytash Airport located in Makhachkala, Dagestan, Russia. However, in 2018, citizens voted for the airport to be named after the painter Ivan Aivazovsky after Amet-khan's name was not allowed in the list of final three options to vote for despite being the most popular in the preliminary round of voting.
Taurida Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) of the Russian Empire. It included the territory of the Crimean Peninsula and the mainland between the lower Dnieper River with the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. It formed after the Taurida Oblast was abolished in 1802 during Paul I's administrative reform of the territories of the former Crimean Khanate, which were annexed by Russia from the Ottoman Empire in 1783. The governorate's centre was the city of Simferopol. The name of the province was derived from Taurida (Greek: Ταυρική), a historical name for Crimea.
Today the territory of the governorate is part of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts of Ukraine, which were annexed by Russia after their 2022 invasion, but remain internationally recognized as part of Ukraine.
Georgy Nikolaevich (or Mykolayovych) Vysotsky (Russian: Гео́ргий Никола́евич Высо́цкий; Ukrainian: Георгій Миколайович Висоцький, romanized: Heorhii Mykolaiovych Vysotskyi; 7 February 1865 – 6 April 1940) was a Ukrainian and Soviet soil scientist and forester who worked in the steppe, where he examined forest growth and the effects of soil factors.
Vysotsky was born in Nikitovka and went to the St. Petersburg Petrovsky Agricultural Academy in 1886, where he came under the influence of Vasily Dokuchaev and Georgy Fedorovich Morozov. He worked from 1890 at the Berdyansk Reserve and in 1892 joined Dokuchaev on an expedition to Poltava and became manager of the Great Anatolian forest reserve. There, he experimented on the use of forest strips to manage droughts. From 1904, he worked on experimental forestry near Samara. From 1913, he worked on reforestation of the steppe near Kiev and from 1918, he began to teach first in Kiev and then in Simferopol, Minsk and Kharkiv.
Perevalne (Ukrainian: Перевальне; Russian: Перевальное, romanized: Perevalnoye; Crimean Tatar: Anğara, Ангъара) (until 1945, Angara) is a village in Crimea, a disputed territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine but administered by Russia as the Republic of Crimea. The village of Perevalne is administered by the Dobre Village Council, which in turn is subordinate to Crimea's Simferopol Raion (district) authorities.
According to the 2001 Ukrainian census, its population was 3,660. The village is located in the middle of the Crimean Mountains, next to the Chatyr-Dag massif. The Simferopol—Alushta—Yalta highway runs through the village, as well as the Crimean Trolleybus line, which has a stop in the settlement.