COLUMNS

Waiting for a Reality Check in Crimea, Five Years on

Feb 27, 2019 | 10:00 GMT

Russian soldiers unload modified T-72 tanks at the Gvardeyskoe railway station near the Crimean capital of Simferopol on March 31, 2014. Crimea sparked a standoff between the West and Russia that has now taken on a life of its own.

(OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

Russia has solidified its control over Crimea, but the contestation of that control by Ukraine and the West continues to loom large in their respective relations with Moscow.
Military action or more sanctions are unlikely to convince Russia to relinquish control over Crimea.
The disconnect between pragmatically achievable objectives and symbolic resistance to Crimea's annexation has created a standoff that is now perpetuating itself.
In international relations, extended crises or disputes eventually behoove affected parties to accept realities, albeit at a cost to those involved.

It's been half a decade since events radically changed Ukraine. Beyond demonstrations in Kiev, where President Viktor Yanukovich fell from power as a result of the euromaidan movement, the pro-Europe protests led to Russia's annexation of Crimea and the ongoing separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. Five years on, the status of Crimea continues to be a source of great contention, as Kiev rejects the peninsula's accession to Russia, which exercises de facto -- and, as far as Moscow is concerned, de jure -- control over it. Even outside Ukraine, the events that occurred in Crimea in 2014 continue to cloud political and military relations between Russia and the West, and several of the sanctions against Russia center directly on the Crimea question. Today, the world is still struggling to cope with the new reality that stems from Russia's actions. In international relations, as in any other field, perception sometimes matters...

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