It seems to me that intelligence operatives within the US and EU establishment cartels moved to overthrow the government of Ukraine and put in place actual open fascists... until that point Russia had no reason to "take Crimea back". However as it is Russia's only warm water port it is of critical strategic military importance, and letting it fall into the sphere of US/EU influence was unacceptable to Russia. Given as how Ukraine was never expected to be divided in this way, I am not at all shocked Russia seized Crimea as the West creeps further East.
And it looks like
they (establishment cartels) want no more of the current Ukrainian President.
So they cornered him into this Martial Law mess.
But the fight to return Crimea actually began in 1954 (the decision to transfer it was dissented widely), became critical in 1991, when then President of Russia "gifted it again" along with Sevastopol (which was separate) and temporarily lost in 1994 when Ukraine restored control. However, Ukraine failed to "decommunise" and "derussify" the region, and neglected it's economy, so 20 years later it was possible to seize it.
The only people who miss "Ukrainian times" are those who were using the relative lawlessness of 1994-2014 to their advantage. They had a lot of Ukrainian tourists coming in, but Ukraine was richer and could afford vacations in Crimea in those years. Those business people earned their money during the tourist season and did nothing the rest of the year, which became difficult now.