Crimea's Bloody History

Zelensky's presumption that the peninsula is sacred Ukrainian territory has no historical basis.

NBC just reported that high level talks in London to end the war in Ukraine foundered when Zelensky proclaimed he would never agree to a deal in which the U.S. officially recognized the Crimea as Russian territory.

Zelenskyy has consistently rejected the suggestion that his country give up its claim to the Crimean Peninsula.

“There’s nothing to talk about here,” he said at a media conference Tuesday. “This is against our constitution.”

A brief review of history reveals there is little historical basis for Zelensky’s claim. Demanding that Russia give up Crimea—home of its Sevastopol Naval Base since 1783—resembles the demand that the U.S. return the Hawaiian Islands (including its Pearl Harbor Naval Station) to an independent Hawaiian state.

After American agents deposed the Hawaiian monarch in 1893, the U.S. government annexed Hawaii in 1898—at the same time it snatched Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines from Spain.

In 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet transferred administration of Crimea to the Ukrainian Oblast of the Soviet Union. This was, at the time, the equivalent of the United States government ceding territory that was part of Texas (annexed in 1845) to the U.S. territory of Colorado (annexed from Mexico when the U.S. won the Mexican-American War in 1848).

The following is a brief timeline of Crimean history.

1441-1783: Territory of the Crimean Khanate, a Crimean Tatar state that ran a slave trade, abducting Europeans and selling them in Ottoman slave markets.

1783-1917: Territory of Imperial Russia. The peninsula was annexed by Russia under Catharine the Great and became home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet at the Sevastopol Naval Base.

1853-56: Crimean War: Russia lost the war against Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire. Russia retained control of the peninsula but was forced to end operations of its Black Sea Fleet. The peninsula continued to be inhabited by a Russian majority, with some Tatars, Ukrainians, and a small number of Germans and Jews.

The Charge of the Light Brigade, Crimean War

1877-78: Russo-Turkish War. Russia won the war and reconstituted its Black Sea Fleet.

1905: Russian Revolution. Crew of Battleship Potemkin mutinied against the Russian Imperial officers. The revolution was suppressed.

1914-1917: World War I: Ottoman and German naval vessels skirmished with Russian vessels that were part of the Black Sea Fleet.

1917-1922: Russian Civil War.

1922-1991: Territory of Soviet Union.

1991-2014: Territory of Ukraine, which leased the Sevastopol Naval Base to Russia.

2014-2025: Unrecognized territory of Russia.

Note that the United States never had a dog in any of the above fights until 1917, when it entered World War I on the side of the Russians. The U.S. again entered war on the side of the Soviet Union in 1941. Hostilities between the U.S. and Russia over Crimea only really began when the U.S. DoD and CIA began meddling in Ukraine during the 2005-2014 period.

The American people have never had any interest in which of Europe’s ever-quarreling powers controls the Crimean peninsula.

Zelensky may well choose to fight “until the last cartridge” over Crimea. However, it seems to me that President Trump should now tell him he can do so without U.S. military assistance.