This transfer happened because the territory depends on the "mainland" which happened to be Ukrainian Republic. Most of the transportation happened through Ukra

This transfer happened because the territory depends on the "mainland" which happened to be Ukrainian Republic. Most of the transportation happened through Ukraine, which also supplied with electricity and water. Crimea has no reliable source of fresh water, pumping it out from the ground turns the land into desert. They didn't believe it was possible that the soviet project would fail and the republics would turn hostile against each other.