@jacksonhinkle A pity that Russia is not able to make indoor toilets for s large part of its citizens. Seems more complicated than to make aircrafyengines
@MultipolarA@Alexandree1507 Which sources di you use? Obviously the Pravda, that misuuses its name as everyone knows. Furthermore I do not use only Wikepedia, and Wikepedia is mostly corect.
Crimean authorities organized a referendum in March 2014 in which official results claimed an overwhelming vote to join Russia, but the vote took place under Russian military occupation and is widely regarded internationally as illegal, unfree, and not a valid expression of popular will.[1][2][3][4]
## What actually happened in 2014
In late February–March 2014, armed Russian forces without insignia took control of key sites across Crimea, including parliament, airports, and military bases.[1]
The new pro‑Russian local authorities then rapidly announced a **referendum** on Crimea’s status for 16 March 2014, giving voters only two options: join Russia or restore the 1992 Crimean constitution (greater autonomy within Ukraine), with no option to maintain the existing status quo in Ukraine.[3][4]
According to the Crimean election commission set up by these authorities, about 95–97% of those who voted supported joining Russia, with a reported turnout above 80%.[2][4][5]
Soon after, Crimea’s parliament declared independence from Ukraine and formally asked to join the Russian Federation, and Russia moved quickly to annex the territory.[4][6][1]
## Why the vote is considered illegitimate
Ukraine’s government, the European Union, the United States, and most UN member states declared the referendum illegal under both Ukrainian constitutional law and international law because it was held without Kyiv’s consent and under foreign military occupation.[7][2][4][1]
The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution affirming Ukraine’s territorial integrity and calling the referendum invalid, and Western governments imposed sanctions on Russia in response.[7][1]
Serious doubts exist about the accuracy of the official turnout and results; there was no independent, credible international observation mission, and alternative analyses based on leaked Russian data and demographic patterns suggest a much lower turnout and a far smaller pro‑annexation majority.[3][1]
In addition, many Crimean Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars boycotted the vote, with Tatar leaders explicitly calling for non‑participation and later facing repression under Russian rule.[8][2][4]
## So did Crimeans “vote to become Russian”?
If you look only at the official figures produced by the Russian‑backed authorities, a very large majority of participating voters supported joining Russia.[5][6][2]
However, because the referendum was conducted under military occupation, excluded any option to remain within Ukraine as before, lacked genuine pluralism and independent oversight, and was rejected as illegal by Ukraine and most of the international community, those results are not treated as a legitimate, free, or binding expression of the Crimean population’s will.[4][1][3][7]
One useful way to phrase it is: there was a vote in Crimea whose official outcome favored joining Russia, but that vote is widely considered coerced, procedurally flawed, and illegal, so the claim that “Crimeans chose to become Russian” is highly contested.
Are you mostly interested in the legal‑international law angle here, or in the political question of what Crimeans themselves actually wanted at the time?
Sources
[1] 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea - Wikipedia https://t.co/8GLQX9Mw3p
[2] Crimea referendum: Voters 'back Russia union' https://t.co/xkLjNsHChW
[3] 2014 Crimean status referendum https://t.co/JywSKrkkN7
[4] Crimean parliament formally applies to join Russia https://t.co/aDmZUtWE43
[5] Crimeans vote to leave Ukraine, join Russia | CBC News https://t.co/qjEZDKm1vL
[6] Crimea Votes in Favor of Union With Russia https://t.co/4Tb7GjdSmW
[7] Russia's actions in Crimea - https://t.co/hlHoiQXdzp https://t.co/kZ9UaKbQ8v
[8] Crimea's history of referendums https://t.co/35mjiWMeCb
[9] Crimea 'votes for Russian union' https://t.co/aq69ahQPsw
[10] Crimea Overwhelmingly Supports Split From Ukraine To Join Russia https://t.co/3zsfEpfYfM
La vérité Gédé:
Il y a bien eu des bombardements ukrainiens dans le Donbass et des violences graves à Odessa et Marioupol, mais les organisations internationales ne parlent ni de « nettoyage ethnique » organisé par Kyiv ni d’une campagne de massacre systématique des russophones qui justifierait juridiquement l’invasion russe de 2022.[1][2][3]
## Bombardements et guerre dans le Donbass (2014–2022)
La guerre du Donbass commence au printemps 2014, quand des groupes armés pro‑russes prennent le contrôle de parties des oblasts de Donetsk et Louhansk après l’annexion de la Crimée. L’armée ukrainienne répond par une « opération antiterroriste » puis par une guerre classique, avec usage d’artillerie et de bombardements, tandis que les forces séparatistes et leurs soutiens russes bombardent aussi des villes tenues par Kyiv; chaque camp accuse l’autre de frapper des objectifs civils.[2][3][4][1]
Des médias et ONG ont documenté des bombardements ukrainiens ayant touché des zones résidentielles dans les « républiques populaires » de Donetsk et Louhansk, ainsi que des bombardements séparatistes atteignant des villes contrôlées par l’Ukraine (par exemple le jardin d’enfants de Stanytsia Luhanska en 2022). Ces faits relèvent d’un conflit armé interne, avec violations du cessez‑le‑feu des deux côtés, mais ils ne sont pas qualifiés par l’ONU ou les grandes ONG comme une politique de nettoyage ethnique décidée à Kyiv contre les russophones, ce qui est une distinction importante.[3][4][5][1][2]
## Odessa 2014
Le 2 mai 2014, à Odessa, des affrontements violents opposent des manifestants pro‑Maïdan et des militants pro‑russes; des combats de rue sont suivis de l’incendie tragique de la Maison des syndicats où périssent des dizaines de personnes pro‑russes. Cet épisode est utilisé par la propagande russe comme preuve de « massacre de russophones », mais les enquêtes internationales parlent d’affrontements chaotiques, de défaillances policières et de violences de groupes radicaux des deux camps, pas d’un massacre planifié par l’État ukrainien pour des raisons ethniques.[1][3]
## Marioupol avant 2022
Marioupol connaît plusieurs épisodes de violence avant le siège et la destruction par l’armée russe en 2022. En 2014–2015, la ville change de contrôle, des combats et des tirs d’artillerie font des victimes civiles, notamment le bombardement d’un quartier résidentiel en janvier 2015 attribué à des roquettes tirées depuis des zones tenues par des séparatistes pro‑russes. Là encore, il s’agit d’épisodes de guerre urbaine et d’artillerie dans un conflit interne, non d’une campagne de massacre organisée contre une population ciblée pour son identité linguistique.[3][1]
## Discrimination et « russophobie »
Sur le plan intérieur, l’Ukraine a adopté depuis 2014–2017 des lois renforçant le statut de l’ukrainien comme langue officielle, limitant d’une certaine façon l’usage institutionnel du russe (éducation, médias, administration). Des experts de l’ONU ont critiqué en 2025 la loi de 2022 sur les minorités nationales, jugeant qu’elle introduisait des différences de traitement entre minorités parlant des langues de l’UE et russophones; ils parlent de discrimination et demandent des corrections, mais pas de persécution massive ou de politique d’expulsion.[6][7][8][9]
Les discours russes sur la « russophobie » ou la « répression des russophones » s’appuient sur ces lois et sur des incidents réels, mais amplifient ou déforment les faits pour parler de « génocide » ou de « nettoyage ethnique », des termes que ni l’ONU, ni l’OSCE, ni les grandes ONG de droits humains n’emploient à propos de la politique de Kyiv envers les russophones avant 2022.[7][10][6]
## Le lien avec l’invasion de 2022
La Russie a explicitement justifié son « opération militaire spéciale » par la nécessité de protéger les populations du Donbass et de mettre fin à un prétendu « génocide » des russophones. Mais les instances internationales (ONU, Conseil de l’Europe, Cour internationale d
Wrong:
Crimea became part of Ukraine primarily through a political‑administrative transfer within the Soviet Union in 1954, and that status was then carried over intact when Ukraine became independent in 1991 and its borders were recognized in international law.[1][2][3]
## Background before 1954
Crimea had been part of the Russian Empire since its annexation from the Crimean Khanate in 1783, and then part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) within the USSR. After World War II, the region’s autonomous status was downgraded and it became the Crimean oblast of the RSFSR in 1945, still administratively “Russian” within the Soviet federal structure.[3][4][5][6][1]
## The 1954 transfer inside the USSR
On 25 January 1954, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party raised the question of transferring the Crimean region from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR). The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR then adopted a decree on 19 February 1954, and the Supreme Soviet passed a law on 26 April 1954, formally transferring Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR; this was justified in the text by Crimea’s economic integration, territorial proximity, and infrastructure dependence on mainland Ukraine.[2][7][8]
## Motives for the transfer
Soviet documents emphasize practical reasons: Crimea’s economy and water, electricity, and transport networks were closely tied to neighboring Ukrainian regions, making administration via Kyiv more efficient. Later commentary also highlighted the symbolic context of the 300th anniversary of the 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement (often framed as a “reunification” of Russia and Ukraine), though archival work suggests personal or purely political motives, such as Khrushchev “appeasing” Ukraine, are often overstated compared to economic considerations.[7][9][2]
## Legal status after 1954
Following the 1954 acts, Crimea was an oblast of the Ukrainian SSR, not of the RSFSR, and this arrangement was treated as legal and uncontroversial within Soviet law until the USSR’s collapse. In 1991, as the Soviet Union dissolved, Crimea remained within the borders of the newly independent Ukrainian state; the Belavezha Accords and Alma-Ata Declaration confirmed the principle that the internal borders of Soviet republics became international borders (uti possidetis juris).[9][1][2][3][7]
## International recognition of Crimea as Ukrainian
In the 1990s, Russia itself signed treaties recognizing Ukraine’s territorial integrity and existing borders, which included Crimea. After Russia occupied and annexed Crimea in 2014 following a disputed local referendum, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 68/262 affirming Ukraine’s territorial integrity and explicitly treating Crimea as part of Ukraine under international law.[4][10][3][9]
Would you like a more detailed walk‑through of the 1954 Soviet decision-making (actors, documents, and legal steps), or a focus on how that internal transfer later shaped the post‑1991 international dispute?
Sources
[1] Crimea - Wikipedia https://t.co/wMQdDHHTVt
[2] February 19, 1954 – Crimea's Transfer to the Ukrainian SSR https://t.co/4USCVseT2C
[3] How Crimea Has Changed Hands Over The Centuries https://t.co/UEl68soZmJ
[4] Crimea | History | Research Starters - EBSCO https://t.co/lbd0M2EPa3
[5] Crimea - Russian Annexation, Crimean War, Tatar Rule | Britannica https://t.co/ZuOM8m77cq
[6] Crimea's history of referendums https://t.co/35mjiWMMrJ
[7] Transfer of Crimea to Ukraine - Wikipedia https://t.co/9tUQjVlzdW
[8] Crimea: A Gift To Ukraine Becomes A Political Flash Point https://t.co/zx5GmhfQwF
[9] Russia-Ukraine War | Episode 1: How Crimea Became Ukrainian https://t.co/veMNmkA6Eb
[10] Crimea profile https://t.co/1g1NjUM4uF
[11] History of Crimea (1991–2014) - Wikipedia https://t.co/GkThnWC0hZ
[12] Where is Crimea, who does it belong to and what happened in 2014 ... https://t.co/l2qvLr9CCM
[13] Political status of Crimea