Crimea was part of Russia for 100s of years and never had much to do with Ukrainian nationalism. When the Soviet Union was established Crimea was part of the Russia Republic.
It was only a power play by Khrushchev to move Crimea into the Ukrainian Republic, since that was his primary base of power.
Since during the collapse of the Soviet Union, the power broke down along the lines of the established Republics Crimea just defaulted into Ukraine even while in terms of infrastructure, population and military port it was Russian.
It was certainty a terrible way how Russia forced the change in the boundary but the people there real had nothing to do with it and shouldn't be punished.
It was a part of Russian Empire and later USSR. Many territories including Ukraine were part of it. The modern Russia is just a part of old countries' land which don't include Crimea.
> Probably because an overwhelming majority of the Crimeans wanted to belong to Russia
If you're referring to the vote held in 2014, it was boycotted by supporters of Ukraine (because the vote itself was unconstitutional under the Ukranian constitution).
