List of cities in Crimea

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Location of cities on the Crimean peninsula, using de facto pre-2020 administrative boundaries, with red dots indicating Russian-occupied cities and the blue dot marking Balaklava, the city status of which is generally not recognized.^[a][1] The administrative area of Sevastapol, on the southwestern tip of the peninsula, is shaded in light gray.

There are 18^[a] populated places in the Crimean peninsula that are recognized as having city status.^[5][6] The territory of Crimea has been disputed between Russia and Ukraine since Russia's covert invasion and internationally unrecognized annexation of the peninsula on 18 March 2014.^{[7][8][4][9][10]} The region is recognized by most countries as Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol as one of Ukraine's cities with special status while, since its annexation, the region has been de facto governed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol as a city of federal importance.^{[4][11][12][13]} As of 2014, the largest city on the peninsula by population according to Russia's post-annexation census was Sevastopol, with a recorded population of 393,304 people, while the peninsula's second largest city was Simferopol, with 332,317 people.^[6] The least populous city on the peninsula was Alupka, which was recorded with a population of 7,771 people in the 2014 census.^[6]

In Ukraine, city status (Ukrainian: місто, romanized: misto) is granted by the country's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, to settlements of 10,000 people or more or to settlements of historical or regional importance.^[14][15] Following its occupation and annexation of Crimea, Russia recognized and maintained the existing status of the peninsula's 18 cities.^[6] In 2019, Russian officials granted the settlement Balaklava, located in Sevastopol's Balaklava urban district, the status of a city, although still keeping it as part of Sevastopol.^[16][17] Due to the international support for UN General Assembly Resolution 68/262, which recognizes Ukrainian sovereignty over Crimea and endorses a policy of non-recognition of Russia's occupation of the peninsula, the new city status is largely not recognized.^[2][4]

Following the passing of decommunization laws, the city of Krasnoperekopsk was renamed in 2016 to Yany Kapu (its original Crimean Tatar name) for Krasnoperekopsk's connection to people, places, events, and organizations associated with the Soviet Union.^[18][19][20] Two cities on the peninsula (Kerch and Sevastopol) were awarded by Soviet officials with the honorary title Hero City of Ukraine in 1973 and 1965, respectively, for their resistance to the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II; the titles were renewed in 2022 by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.^[21][22]

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