In 2014, when after months of protests in Ukraine, pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was deposed in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, Russian troops occupied Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, and after a hasty referendum the Kremlin the annexation of the Crimean republic and Sevastopol. The annexation was not recognized by Ukraine or most other members of the international community. A few weeks later, an armed conflict broke out the Donbas region of Ukraine, in which the Kremlin denies an active role, but widely considered to be fuelled by soldiers, militants, weapons, and ammunition from the Russian Federation.