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What did a second S-400 battalion mean for Crimea?
Summary
A look back at a Russian military deployment on the annexed peninsula reported in mid-January 2018.
What did it mean when Russia placed a second S-400 anti-air missile battalion in Crimea? The deployment was reported on 13 January 2018, and on 17 January 2018 it remained part of the picture of a peninsula that Russia had annexed from Ukraine.
The move added to Russia's air-defence presence in Crimea. The S-400 is an anti-air missile system, and the report described a second battalion being stationed there, which pointed to a growing military footprint rather than a one-off measure.
The wider setting
Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula in February and March 2014, occupied it and then annexed it after a referendum that was illegitimate. This came amid the uncertainty that followed Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity. The invasion marked the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Against that background, the January 2018 deployment showed Russia continuing to reinforce territory it had seized from Ukraine nearly four years earlier. The annexation was the first time since World War II that a European country had annexed part of another.
The S-400 deployment was one more sign that Moscow treated the peninsula as a lasting military position.
