Timeline of the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation referendum illegal and affirming Ukraine's territorial integrity. Eleven nations voted against, with 58 abstentions. Russian state media agency ITAR-TASS reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow to inform it of Russia's unilateral termination of a number of Black Sea Fleet agreements, as well as Russia's willingness to repatriate Ukrainian military equipment left in Crimea. Crimea and Sevastopol switched to Moscow Time at 22:00 (10:00 PM) Eastern European Time. In Novofedorivka Junior Sergeant of the Russian Naval Infantry E.Zaitsev fired two shots at close distance from an AK-74, killing Ukrainian officer Major Stanislav Karachevsky who
Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation Russia would treat Crimea the same way as it had treated South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Crimea is populated by an ethnic Russian majority and a minority of both ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, and thus demographically possessed one of Ukraine's largest ethnic Russian populations. Already in 2011, some analysts speculated that the Russian government had irredentist plans: The Euromaidan protest movement began in Kiev in late November 2013 after President Viktor Yanukovych, of the Party of Regions, suspended the signing of the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement. Yanukovych won the 2010 presidential election with strong support from voters in the Autonomous