Political status of Crimea declared their independence from Ukraine as a single united state under the name of "Republic of Crimea". These two entities (Crimea and Sevastopol) were then annexed by Russia, where the Crimean Autonomous Republic became the "Republic of Crimea" as a Russian republic and Sevastopol became a Russian federal city. However, Ukraine and the majority of the international community do not consider the merge, the independence, the referendum, nor the annexation legitimate and still consider both entities as parts of Ukraine. Despite international opinion however, the currency, tax and legal system are all operational under Russian jurisdiction. Ukraine has applied for
Timeline of the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation of secession of Crimea from Ukraine if the situation in the country worsens. The head of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Refat Chubarov criticized the announcement and said that Konstantinov who was in Moscow at the time, openly invited Russian security forces to intervene in Crimean internal politics. The Russian military operation against Ukraine started on this date, according to the inscription on the Medal "For the Return of Crimea", awarded by the Russian Ministry of Defence. A Ukrainian law signed September 2015 designated this as the "date of the start of the temporary occupation". In Simferopol, a pro-Euromaidan