The Germans struggled to crack Sevastopol’s defences over a 10-month siege in WWII. Shown here is one of the formidable Maxim Gorky batteries outside the city
At 23,000 tons, the Sevastopol-class battleships served with distinction in the Baltic Sea during WWI. Originally laid down in 1909 and then rebuilt in the 1930s at least one ship, named the Paris Commune, fought in the Black Sea during WWII
After the ill-conceived Crimean War, an eventful 62 years passed before the British and French sent their armies to Ukraine again. It was late 1918 and the Russians had crumbled, while the Ottoman Empire was teetering on the brink. At the beginning of the 20th century Sevastopol’s status was not only strategic but symbolic, making it one of Russia’s three great cities after St Petersburg and Moscow.