Sevastopol’

Sevastopol’ (Ukrainian Sevastopil), also called Sebastopol, city in southern Ukraine, on the Crimean Peninsula. Located on an inlet of the Black Sea, the city is a major naval base and a seaport. Manufactures include ships, processed food, and wood products.

A Greek colony called Chersonesus was founded near the site of modern Sevastopol’ in the late 5th century bc. Chersonesus later passed, successively, to the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and Genoa. By the 14th century ad the site of Sevastopol’ was occupied by the Tatar settlement of Akhtiar. After the Crimean Peninsula came under Russian control in 1783, the site was made a strongly fortified naval base by Catherine the Great and was named Sevastopol’. During the Crimean War (1853-1856) the city sustained an 11-month siege and was severely damaged. During World War II (1939-1945) Sevastopol’ was captured by German and Romanian troops in 1942 after a nine-month siege; Soviet forces retook the city in 1944. In 1954 Soviet leaders reassigned Sevastopol’ from Russia to Ukraine, when both were republics in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, Ukraine and Russia both laid claim to the Black Sea Fleet stationed in Sevastopol’. An agreement reached in mid-1995 divided the fleet between the two countries. However, the ownership of Sevastopol’, which some Russian politicians argued should be returned to Russian control, remained a point of contention. In mid-1997 the two governments reached a new accord in which Russia took about 80 percent of the fleet and dropped any claim to Sevastopol’, agreeing to lease its use of the port. Ukraine’s share of the fleet was also to remain in Sevastopol’. Population (2001) 342,000.