位於烏克蘭南端的克里米亞半島原先住著克里米亞韃靼人。在俄羅斯帝國統治時期，將克里米亞半島建設成俄國黑海艦隊的基地，並移入大量俄羅斯人進駐，使得整個半島高達65%是俄羅斯人，克里米亞韃靼人剩不到15%。1954年，蘇聯總書記赫魯雪夫再把克里米亞當作禮物「送」給烏克蘭，反正當時烏克蘭也是蘇聯的一分子，赫魯雪夫沒想這麼多。但卻因此種下分離主義的種子。
蘇聯解體，烏克蘭獨立，克里米亞順理成章成為烏克蘭領土。2014年，烏克蘭總統垮台，克里米亞議會請俄羅斯出兵維持秩序，並趁勢舉辦獨立公投，以超過96%的支持率加入俄羅斯，從此克里米亞轉由俄羅斯實質掌控。這事件引發西方國家集體撻伐，俄羅斯更是被踢出八大工業國組織（G8）。目前國際社會皆不承認俄羅斯擁有克里米亞主權，克里米亞名義上仍屬於烏克蘭領土。

The original residents of Crimea, which sits in the southern part of Ukraine, were the Crimean Tatars. Under the rule of the Russian Empire, Crimea was converted into the Russian base for the Black Sea fleet, which led to the influx of a large population of Russians effectively altering the demographics in Crimea to 65% Russian and less than 15% Crimean Tatars. In 1954, the First Secretary of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, gave Crimea to the Ukraine as a present. As Ukraine was also a part of the Soviet Union then, he did not put much thought into the decision. However, Khrushchev had just planted the seeds of separatism. 

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Ukraine became independent and Crimea naturally became part of the territory of the Ukraine. In 2014, when the President of the Ukraine fell from power, the State Council of Crimea asked Russia to send out peacekeeping troops for protection as Crimea held a public referendum on independence from the Ukraine. 96% of Crimea’s population voted for integration into the Russian Federation and Crimea thus became governed by Russia. This led to the collective condemnation of Western countries, and Russia was kicked out of the G8. Russian sovereignty over Crimea is currently not recognized by international governing bodies, and it is still officially considered part of Ukrainian territory.