But the Crimea wasn't sold to the Ukraine or acquired in a war or ceded to Ukraine. It was simply gifted and to them by Stalin because both the Ukraine and Russia were part of the sane country, the USSR. Once the USSR broke up it made sense to take the Crimea back. That was Khrushchev, not Stalin, K was Stalin's boss in Ukraine, and wanted to get their support in his power struggle after Stalin's death.