5 DOI https://doi.org/10.36059/978-966-397-111-7/5-25 FEATURES OF MEMORIAL POLICY IN CRIMEA IN THE CONTEXT OF RUSSIAN ANNEXATION Horiunova Y. INTRODUCTION The Russian Federation is waging a hybrid war on various fronts. The Kremlin uses almost the entire complex of its means Against Ukraine – from real military hostilities in the eastern part of the country, although under slogans “we are not there”, to a powerful anti-Ukrainian information campaign. Wars of the XXI century are already far from the traditional perception of an armed conflict, because they ceased to be solely military actions. “It is necessary to take into account the socio- cultural, techno-economic and geopolitical dimensions of a war,” a hybrid war scholar, F. Hoffman, said 1 . One of the key features of the Russian hybrid war against Ukraine is the Kremlin's memorial policy, which helped the Russian authorities to justify “the return of Crimea to their native harbor. ” Accordingly, statements about the Crimea as an integral part of Russia continually appear in program speeches of the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Allegedly, these ancient ties of the peninsula with the “Russian world” start from the baptism of Volodymyr in Korsun (Chersonesus). The memorial policy and the formation of a corresponding cultural space of the Crimea promote the implementation of the Kremlin’s strategy. This strategy is filled with Russian symbols, ranging from monuments and ending with names of streets. This space has been forming over several centuries along with the myths about the “ancestral affiliation” of Crimea and Sevastopol to Russia. During Soviet times, Russian imperial symbols disappear from the Crimea. Monuments to tsars were destroyed and replaced with mass renaming of settlements and streets in honor of Soviet leaders. During the time of independent Ukraine, the symbolic field of the Crimea has not 1 Hoffman F. G. Hybrid Warfare and Challenges. Joint Force Quartelly (JFQ). Issue 52. Forth Quarter. 2009. P. 36.