Utter bulls#it.
Crimea was part of Russia since Catherine the Great took it from the Ottomans in 1783.
Khrushchev transferred it to Ukraine in a deal for political support after the death of Stalin in the 1950s. This would be like a presidential candidate giving Long Island to Connecticut for electoral college votes. New York would never accept this.
In 1990, Sec State James Baker promised Gorbachev that if the Soviet military left Eastern Europe, NATO would NOT expand eastward. Baker promised “the Austrian solution,” a demilitarized and neutral Eastern Europe in return for Soviet force withdrawal.
America and NATO broke this agreement, now NATO extends from Estonia to Romania.
Ukraine is Russia’s final red line. We ignore this geopolitical reality at our own peril.
Gorbachev has said that no such promise was made by Baker (saw that posted "somewhere", maybe even here on FR).