On 4 February 1945, the Yalta Conference began in Yalta. It became one of the key international meetings of the Second World War period.

The conference was attended by the leaders of the Allied anti-Hitler coalition: President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

The meeting determined the principles of the post-war order in Europe. In particular, the participants discussed the terms of Nazi Germany’s capitulation, the establishment of international security mechanisms, and post-war borders in Europe. Separate discussions addressed reparations, responsibility for war crimes, and the creation of a new international institution—the United Nations.

The Ukrainian context of the Yalta Conference is often overlooked, yet it was significant. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR had suffered enormous human and material losses as a result of the war. The decisions taken in Yalta effectively cemented Ukraine’s inclusion in the Soviet sphere of influence, depriving it of the right to choose its own political future. At the same time, the conference paved the way for the Ukrainian SSR’s participation in the founding of the United Nations as a separate member.

For Crimea, the Yalta Conference took place against the backdrop of an earlier tragedy. In May 1944, the Soviet authorities deported the Crimean Tatar people — committing a crime that was later recognised as an act of genocide. At the time of the conference, the indigenous people of Crimea had been forcibly removed from their homeland, yet their tragedy was not the subject of any international discussion.

The Yalta Conference laid the foundations of the post-war world order. However, for Ukraine and Crimea, its consequences meant decades of life under conditions of freedom, repression, and the silencing of the crimes of the Soviet regime.