After the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, the claim of the now Russian Navy for use of the naval base was initially lost (since Crimea was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954, the base was on the soil of the new post-Soviet state Ukraine). From then on, Russia paid an annual lease to Ukraine for the use of the base until 2014, as regulated by the Partition Treaty on the Black Sea Fleet and the Kharkiv Pact. Since the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014, the naval base is again under Russian control.