In response to a question about alleged U.S. bases in Ukraine, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said: "There are no U.S. or NATO bases in Ukraine." She added, "There have never been any plans to establish U.S. military bases in Crimea" and described such claims as part of Russian disinformation during the Crimea crisis.

Addressing Russian claims that the United States intended to build naval facilities in Crimea, the State Department spokesperson stated: "Any suggestions that the United States was planning to establish a military base or a training school in Crimea are false." She characterized these allegations as "baseless propaganda" used to justify Russia's actions.

An archived U.S. federal contracting notice describes a project titled "Sevastopol School #5, Roof Repair and Interior Renovation, Sevastopol, Ukraine" issued by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Europe Africa Southwest Asia (NAVFAC EURAFSWA). The scope of work includes roof replacement, interior renovations of toilets, locker rooms, and a gym, window and door replacement, and related repairs at School No. 5 in Sevastopol. The notice categorizes the project under construction/repair services and does not state that the school will become a U.S. military base or military school; it is described as a repair and renovation project at a Ukrainian school facility.

In a fact sheet rebutting Russian narratives about Ukraine, the State Department wrote: "Russia has falsely claimed that NATO and the United States sought to turn Crimea into a military outpost." It went on: "There were no plans for U.S. bases, ship berthing, or U.S. military schools in Crimea prior to Russia’s occupation."

The State Department fact sheet on U.S.–Ukraine relations, updated in early 2014, describes U.S. security cooperation with Ukraine, including military education and training programs. It notes that the United States provided International Military Education and Training (IMET) funds to train Ukrainian officers in U.S. military schools and supported joint exercises such as SEA BREEZE and RAPID TRIDENT. The fact sheet does not mention any plan to construct a U.S. military school in Crimea or on a former Soviet base there; U.S. training for Ukrainians took place at existing U.S. and Ukrainian facilities.

Responding indirectly to Russian accusations that NATO intended to expand militarily into Crimea, the North Atlantic Council stated: "NATO has no bases in Ukraine and had no plans to establish any in Crimea." The statement emphasized that Russian claims about NATO military facilities in Crimea were "without foundation."

During the 7125th meeting on the situation in Ukraine, Council members and Ukrainian officials discussed Russia’s military moves in Crimea, the status of the Black Sea Fleet, and alleged threats to Russian speakers. None of the statements by Russia, Ukraine, the United States, or other Council members referred to a U.S. plan to establish a military school in Crimea or on a former Soviet base there. The debate focused on Russia’s intervention, the existing basing agreements in Sevastopol for the Russian Black Sea Fleet, and Ukraine’s sovereignty.

The 1993 U.S.–Ukraine defense cooperation memorandum describes areas of cooperation such as "education and training" and "exchanges between professional military educational institutions." It does not list any plan to build or operate a U.S. military school or base on Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, and contains no reference to any former Soviet base in Crimea being slated for a U.S. facility.

The 1997 Russia–Ukraine agreement on the status and conditions of the Black Sea Fleet defines the terms for Russia’s use of bases in Sevastopol and elsewhere in Crimea. It specifies that the main military facilities at Sevastopol remain under Russian lease and outlines limitations on the use and sub‑leasing of those bases. The treaty does not authorize any U.S. presence or U.S. military school on these former Soviet bases, and it indicates that Russia, not Ukraine or third countries, controlled the principal Soviet‑era naval base at Sevastopol.

The State Department’s overview of U.S. security cooperation with Ukraine, updated after 2014 but describing pre‑2014 programs, notes that the United States provided training, exercises, and education assistance to the Ukrainian armed forces. It describes Ukrainian participation in U.S. professional military education institutions and U.S. support for training centers in western Ukraine, such as the Yavoriv International Peacekeeping and Security Center. The document does not indicate that the United States planned or funded a dedicated U.S. military school in Crimea before Russia’s annexation.

BBC’s timeline of the Ukraine crisis and Russia’s annexation of Crimea reviews key events from late 2013 and early 2014, including the Euromaidan protests, Russia’s deployment of troops in Crimea, and the subsequent referendum and annexation. The article discusses existing Russian bases at Sevastopol and the Black Sea Fleet agreement but does not mention any U.S. project to build a military school in Crimea. The only foreign military presence highlighted in Crimea before annexation is the Russian fleet under lease agreements.

Gazeta.ru recounts that in 2014 Crimean prime minister Sergei Aksyonov wrote on Twitter that he had found on the U.S. government procurement website an "cancelled tender for the reconstruction of a school in Sevastopol – allegedly into an engineering base of the U.S. Navy." The article states that the tender was posted in September 2013 and cancelled in April 2014 "in connection with the current situation" after the Crimean referendum. It then cites Voice of America as saying that the document concerned "ordinary repair of the school, and not its reconstruction into a military base," adding that the U.S. Navy, like other federal agencies, also undertakes humanitarian projects and that the plan was to repair the roof, toilets, gym and locker rooms of the school with U.S. funds.

The Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda writes that "on the U.S. government procurement website there is a tender for the reconstruction of Sevastopol School No. 5 into an engineering base of the U.S. Navy" and says the tender was announced on 5 September 2013 with applications accepted until 21 October 2013, then cancelled on 15 April 2014 a month after the Crimean referendum. The article interprets these documents as proof that "Crimea had to become an unsinkable [U.S.] base" and that U.S. Navy forces, not Russia's Black Sea Fleet, were supposed to be stationed in Sevastopol, but it does not cite any U.S. document explicitly describing the facility as a future American military school or base.

Carnegie discussed the pre-annexation Western-backed reform agenda in Ukraine and referenced plans that included a military school in Crimea on a former Soviet base. The article treated the project as one of several initiatives cut short by the Russian takeover.

The Sevastopol local outlet ForPost reports that "on the U.S. government procurement website there is a tender for the reconstruction of Sevastopol School No. 5 into an engineering base of the U.S. Navy," citing a statement by Crimean prime minister Sergei Aksyonov. The article says the tender was announced on 5 September 2013 and that at the time of writing it was cancelled, noting that Aksyonov believes the school was supposed to be reconstructed into an engineering base of the U.S. Navy. The text reproduces the Russian interpretation of the tender but does not provide any excerpt from the U.S. tender in which the facility is explicitly called a U.S. military base or military school.

National News Service (NSN) reports that a tender dated 5 September 2013 on the U.S. federal procurement site concerned the repair of Sevastopol secondary school No. 5 with the U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command listed as the customer, and that it was cancelled on 15 April 2014 "due to the current situation in Ukraine." The report says that Crimean prime minister Sergei Aksyonov stated on Twitter that the school was planned to be reconstructed into an "engineering base" of the U.S. Navy, and quotes former Russian Black Sea Fleet commander Admiral Igor Kasatonov as alleging that the United States planned to build in Sevastopol a permanent intelligence base and that the facility would serve as a reconnaissance and information center for the U.S. Navy, but presents these as opinions about the project’s intent rather than citing any U.S. document describing a planned American military school.

Business Vedomosti asserts that the United States "had already announced a tender to convert a school in Sevastopol into an engineering base of the U.S. Navy," saying that the tender was announced on 5 September 2013 and cancelled on 15 April 2014 after the Crimean referendum. The article concludes that "Crimea was supposed to become an American unsinkable base" and that documentation for this tender is "direct proof" that U.S. Navy forces were supposed to be based in Sevastopol instead of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, but the story does not quote any passage in the U.S. procurement notice where the project is identified as a future U.S. military school or a fully fledged U.S. base.

A widely circulated 2014 news report stated that U.S. officials had planned a military school in Crimea, on the site of a former Soviet base, as part of Ukrainian military reform efforts. The plan was interrupted by Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014.

The regional site Yugsn.ru claims that "long before the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych, the Americans dreamed of having their own military base in Crimea" and states that a referendum on reunification with Russia ended these plans. Citing Russian senator Dmitry Sablin, it reports that U.S. officials allegedly prepared estimates for repairs of several buildings in Sevastopol and Simferopol where they planned to place staff and intelligence units, and that U.S. instructions for converting Ukrainian military airfields and garrisons to NATO standards were sent, with April 2014 allegedly marked in U.S. military plans as the start of arranging a presence in Crimea. These allegations are presented through Russian political figures and do not rely on publicly available U.S. planning documents explicitly outlining a U.S. military school on a former Soviet base.

A Ukrainian fact‑checking video explains that in April 2014 Russian media amplified a tender on the U.S. federal procurement site for repairs at a Sevastopol school as proof that the U.S. planned to turn the school into a U.S. military base. The video notes that the tender, placed by the U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command, specified roof repairs, renovation and re‑planning of rooms, windows, facades, locker rooms and showers at School No. 5 in Sevastopol and points out that "the tender indeed existed, but it was about ordinary repair of the school, not its reconstruction into a military base" as part of humanitarian projects in which the U.S. Navy also participated. The presenter states that no evidence was provided beyond speculative interpretations by Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov to support the idea that a U.S. military base or school was planned there.