A flag ceremony on the deck of a Black Sea fleet naval vessel. Up to 1991 Russian and Ukrainian naval forces cooperated with each other but after the break up of the Soviet Union control of Sevastopol became a key factor in the struggle between the Ukraine and Russia over the Crimea Peninsula.
As Russia's only warm water port with access to the Mediterranean, control of Sevastopol was a factor in its annexation of Crimea in 2014.
