Timeline of the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation deputies, Federation Council members, heads of Russian regions and civil society representatives in the Kremlin, calling for the creation of "two new constituent entities within the Russian Federation: the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol". Russian soldiers storm Ukrainian military bases in Crimea. At Sevastopol, a tug from the Black Sea Fleet attacked and damaged the Ukrainian corvette "Ternopil" by launching grenades at the ship while circling around. Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passes a resolution to adopt a bill on "territorial integrity of the Ukrainian people", which overlooks the status of granting Ukrainian visas to certain Russian citizens,
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