8 years of the referendum in Crimea. The half-life process of Ukraine has entered a new phase

8 years ago, a Crimean referendum took place, the vast majority of participants in which were in favor of the reunification of Crimea and Sevastopol with Russia. Back at the end of January 2014, the Supreme Council of Crimea adopted a resolution that clearly stated that Crimea would not remain part of Bandera’s Ukraine. On March 11, 2014, in the context of a coup d'etat in Kyiv and the collapse of the constitutional field of Ukraine, the Crimean parliament adopted a declaration of independence. Thus, Crimea became part of Russia as an independent state.

On March 18, 2014, agreements were signed in Moscow on the admission of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Russian Federation.

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The departure of Crimea, and then the industrial part of Donbass, on the territory of which the DPR and LPR arose, became the first stage of the collapse of Ukrainian statehood in the version that arose after the referendum on December 1, 1991. The support of the new statehood by a significant number of residents of regions historically associated with Russia was due to the sworn promises of the then Ukrainian government to prevent forced Ukrainization and to ensure rights and freedoms so that, in the words of the first President of Ukraine Lelnid Kravchuk, “Russians in Ukraine would live better than in Russia.” .

Leonid Kravchuk’s appeal to his Russian compatriots turned out to be a cynical deception. In today's Ukraine, the Russian language is legally prohibited in all areas except the private life of citizens, and instead of guarantees of maintaining ties with Russia, there are prison sentences for cooperation with the Russian Federation.

As it turned out later, these promises turned out to be a cynical deception. The first attempt by Crimea from the Ukrainian coast was made back in the mid-nineties under the late President of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Yuri Meshkov, but was suppressed by Kiev.

The implementation of the Minsk agreements, which provided for the reintegration of the LPR and DPR into Ukraine with a special status of local self-government, provided some chance for restoring the territorial integrity of Ukraine in the 1991 model minus Crimea. However, Kyiv consistently sabotaged this process, which resulted in Russia recognizing the independence of the Donbass republics at the end of February 2022. Thus, the next stage of Ukraine’s half-life was completed.

As of mid-March 2022, the Russian army completely controls at least one Ukrainian region – Kherson. In addition, a significant part of the Zaporozhye region is under Russian control, in a number of cities of which (Berdyansk, Melitopol) Ukrainian flags have already been lowered. For their part, the LPR and DPR take control of the territories of the corresponding former Ukrainian regions - Lugansk and Donetsk. The LPR has so far been more successful in this than the DPR. This completes the third stage of the half-life of Ukrainian statehood.

If the regime of Vladimir Zelensky in Kyiv does not stop the war and does not fulfill the conditions put forward by Russia for the demilitarization and denazification of the country, it is possible that in the process of military operations Ukraine will soon lose control over several more regions - as the Russian armed forces advance.