For a student of history, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has shown remarkably little awareness that Crimea’s defenders over the centuries have almost always lost.

Crimea is home to several historical strongholds and fortresses that span centuries—a reminder that the peninsula on the Black Sea has faced numerous sieges throughout its long history.

Since the peninsula’s illegal seizure and annexation by Russia in 2014, the Kremlin has been the latest nation to invest in preparing it for attack. This has included dense networks for S-400 Triumf air defense systems, coastal batteries, and early warning radar sites. Moscow has also attempted to present Crimea as an impenetrable bastion that could endure an all-out assault. However, throughout the ongoing war, Ukraine has conducted long-range missile and drone strikes that have steadily dismantled and weakened the defensive perimeter. Each of these attacks serves both as a personal blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has staked his reputation on the acquisition of the peninsula for Russia, and a reminder that “Fortress Crimea” could fall yet again.

Putin once called Crimea an “unsinkable aircraft carrier,” and Russia continues to base and operate tactical combat aircraft and drones from several key military facilities across the occupied peninsula. However, strikes conducted over the weekend may have damaged as many as seven Russian warplanes on the ground. Crimea was also plunged into darkness by the weekend’s strikes—serving as a reminder to residents that it is far from outside Ukraine’s grasp.

These attacks may not be enough to liberate Crimea on their own, but the peninsula will become increasingly difficult for Russia to hold. Still, they are far from the first time that Crimea has been subjected to war, famine, and disease as part of a struggle between two great powers elsewhere.

The “Black Death” Started in Crimea

Crimea’s strategic location has made it a frequent battleground over the eons. The earliest recorded invasion of the peninsula was in 513 BCE, when the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire under Darius I plundered the region. Over the millennia that followed, the peninsula passed to Greek control and later to the Roman and Byzantine Empires, who typically ruled it through local clients.

The first great siege on the peninsula took place in the middle of the 14th century, when Mongol forces of the Golden Horde, led by Jani Beg, encircled the Genoese-controlled port city of Caffa (modern-day Feodosia). The city held out for nearly three years between 1343 and 1346, until the attacking Mongol army was devastated by an outbreak of bubonic plague.

Instead of lifting the siege and forcing the Golden Horde to retreat, in a desperate move, the attackers used their siege engines to catapult plague-infected corpses into the city in one of the first modern examples of biological warfare. It forced the Genoese to abandon the city and flee; in so doing, it spread the Black Death into the Mediterranean and then across the world, with profound consequences for the history of Europe and the globe.

Last Stands Are Popular in Crimea

Several more times in just the past 200 years, the defenses on the peninsula have come under attack from outside invaders. In the West, this most prominently included the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War, which lasted 11 months from October 1854 until September 1855. Its fall in September 1855 led to the end of the Crimean War, which killed an estimated 500,000 soldiers and civilians on both sides for relatively little political importance.

In 1920, the peninsula became the final major redoubt for the anti-Bolshevik White Army in European Russia during the Russian Civil War. White General Pyotr Wrangel gathered the remaining, fractured remnants of the White forces and retreated into Crimea, where they fortified the Perekop Isthmus—the narrow strip of land connecting the peninsula to the mainland—to make a last stand against the advancing Red Army. Facing certain defeat, Wrangel held the line long enough to see nearly 150,000 soldiers and civilian refugees escape by sea to Istanbul.

The city, home to the Russian Navy’s and later the Soviet Navy’s Black Sea Fleet, was besieged again during Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. It held out for 250 days, from October 1941 until July 1942, but was ultimately forced into surrender by the Nazis.

The Soviet Union recaptured the city in mid-1944 with relatively little effort—a reminder that fortifications don’t always slow an attacker.

Can Russia Hold Crimea Against Ukraine? History Suggests Otherwise

The Kremlin has crafted a narrative that Crimea will serve as an impregnable fortress, but as history has shown, there are likely several factors that will shatter such an illusion.

The first is that it relies heavily on just a handful of vulnerable supply lines. Kyiv continues to cut those lines, which will make supplying the peninsula all the more challenging. Ukrainian forces have also successfully neutralized much of Crimea’s air defenses and forced the Black Sea Fleet to flee from Sevastopol. This has turned the fortress into a logistical pit—impossible to hold onto and equally impossible to retreat from.  

Putin has been described as a student of history, yet he shows no realization that Crimea’s defenders have almost always lost throughout history. Perhaps the Russian leader expected a Red Army-style campaign that swept over all of Ukraine. Instead, the Black Sea Fleet has been effectively destroyed as a capable fighting force, and soon the jewel in the crown of Putin’s imperial ambitions could soon be out of reach.

About the Author: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu has contributed to dozens of newspapers, magazines and websites over a 30-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a contributing writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. He is based in Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.

The post History Proves That ‘Fortress Crimea’ Is a Myth appeared first on The National Interest.