DISINFO: In 2014, Crimea overwhelmingly voted to rejoin Russia
SUMMARY
The Crimean Peninsula and the federal city of Sevastopol became part of Russia after a referendum on 16 March 2014, in which the majority of residents voted to become part of the country. 18 March 2024 will thus mark 10 years since the Crimean Peninsula was reunited with Russia.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the illegal annexation of Crimea.
According to international law, Crimea is a part of Ukraine. On 27 March 2014, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning Russia's occupation of Crimea and stating that the referendum in Crimea was not valid and could not serve as a basis for any change in the status of the peninsula.
Following the covert invasion of “little green men,” power in Crimea was vested in a makeshift executive headed by Sergey Aksenov. The new Crimean regime conducted the referendum hastily and at gunpoint, barred impartial observers from entering the peninsula, and instead invited dozens of fringe politicians and activists to “monitor” the procedure, most of them far-right Kremlin loyalists.
A year after the illegal annexation, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that the plan to annex Crimea was ordered weeks before the so-called referendum.
No international body has recognised the so-called referendum, which was organised by a self-proclaimed Crimean leadership lacking democratic legitimacy and installed by armed Russian military personnel following the seizure of public buildings.
The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has stated that “the situation within the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol amounts to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. This international armed conflict began at the latest on 26 February 2014 when the Russian Federation deployed members of its armed forces to gain control over parts of the Ukrainian territory without the consent of the Ukrainian Government."
On 17 December 2018, the UN General Assembly confirmed its non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea. The EU's policy of non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol includes a set of restrictive measures against entities and individuals responsible for actions against Ukraine's territorial integrity.
Read similar cases claiming that Crimea re-joined Russia as a result of a popular referendum, that Ukraine, USA and the EU recognised the reunification of Crimea with Russia, and that Crimea voted to secede after the coup in Kyiv.