Crimea had been a part of Russia since the time of Catherine the Great after Russia took it from the Ottoman Turks. It was an accident of history that Crimea wound up in Ukraine when Khrushchev granted the Ukrainian Republic. Go back and check maps of Europe dating back 2000 years and no country by the name of Ukraine exists. It was only in 1991 following the fall of the Soviet Union that a republic of Ukraine finally existed. Oh there were Ukrainians for sure but they were always a part of some else's empire - Poland, Lithuania, the Austrian Hungarian and Russia .At one time the capital of Russia was Kiev. Not even after ww1 or ww2 did a country by the name of Ukraine even exist. There was ancient Galicja which was the basis of the Ukraine.But as noted Galicja became a part of everyone else's empire through the centuries from at least 1400 onward. Today Galicja is a part of the Ukraine. The Ukraine should exist but it is the western part only. Eastern Ukraine is primarily Russian.