Short answer: we don't know.
Interesting history: Crimea was its own little Soviet Socialist Republic from 1921 until 1945, then part of the Russian one until 1954, when Khrushchev meddled.
On a personal note, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem,
The Charge of the Light Brigade was popular when I was a child. But now I'm grown up, nobody in the UK seems to remember that Crimea was part of Russia, back when Britain and France invaded Russia to help the Ottoman Empire. I don't get how "Crimea was part of Russia" has disappearred down the memory hole, when there was a catchy poem to anchor the memory. Normal people seem weirdly trapped in an eternal present of what the TV just told them.
Native 2 points 1 year ago
The answer is because nobody expected the Soviet Union to collapse. Ukraine was a “state” under the government authority of the USSR. “Giving crimea to Ukraine” made sense as a governing structure and because Ukraine was a “state” nobody expected the USSR to collapse.
It’s not complicated it’s like asking why did America make California a state? Nobody is expecting California to secede from the Union.
Krushev was also born in Ukraine and had strong feelings regarding the region.