UNDERWORLDS OF CRIMEA

Crimea - a bone of contention between European powers for centuries. Fiercely contested to this day.

Its cities - built as fortresses. Because the Crimean peninsula lies like a bridgehead in the Black Sea. Through its annexation, Russia has had direct access to the Mediterranean again since 2014, even though Crimea belongs to Ukraine. Due to its favourable military location, the port city of Sevastopol has been fiercely contested since the Crimean War in the 19th century, and the city has been a restricted area of the Soviet Union since the Second World War. In the bay of Balaklava, an entire mountain was hollowed out to create a secret submarine bunker in which four ships could be hidden one behind the other. Only those who pass through the Dardanelles and the Bosporus can leave the Black Sea. The straits are the territory of Turkey, which has been a NATO member since 1952, so Captain Alexey Ivanovich Luschnikov, the commander of a Soviet submarine, specialised in destroying Istanbul and Ankara. His boat was on the Bosporus overnight - equipped with nuclear missiles.