This will definitely happen - Turchynov on the Ukrainian invasion of Crimea
Simferopol, October 25 (PolitNavigator, Evgeniy Andreev) – Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, ex-acting. President Alexander Turchynov claims that Ukraine’s inglorious loss of Crimea was a forced measure, and the country will return the peninsula when its armed forces finally become stronger.
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The politician stated this in an interview with the Kyiv publication censor.net.
The fact that a military confrontation between Kiev and Moscow is inevitable, he said, became clear already on February 27:
“I realized this immediately as soon as I was informed that Russian special forces had captured the Cabinet of Ministers and the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Everything became clear to me immediately. Russia, taking advantage of the situation of anarchy in Ukraine, began aggression against us. I remember, literally a few hours later, I gathered everyone whom we authorized to work in the security forces. Their assessment was very pessimistic: we do not control the security forces on the peninsula. Crimean and Sevastopol "Berkut" left the barracks with weapons in their hands and fully supported the Russian aggression. Having received heavy weapons from Russia,
they took up defensive positions, blocking the entrance to the peninsula,” Turchinov noted.
That is, the speaker admitted, many Crimean security forces, together with the Russian Federation, opposed Ukraine.
“They started preparing this putsch, this occupation long before we won on the Maidan. Russian analysts understood that Yanukovych was doomed, and real preparations for the seizure of Crimea began even before December 2013. A detailed analysis of the situation was carried out, strategic infrastructure objects were studied, maps and action plans were prepared, and special groups were formed from the local population who had undergone military training. And in Crimea, you know, there are a lot of retired officers. In general, they had a favorable environment for all this. Since the beginning of 2013, there has been an avalanche-like activation of Russian intelligence: the number of reconnaissance aircraft overflights of the Ukrainian border has increased by an order of magnitude. The reason for this was Yanukovych’s temporary flirtation with the EU. The Ukrainian special services recorded all this, but, of course, Yanukovych did not pay any attention to it. That is, even then the Russian military received the command to prepare for a possible invasion,” the ex-head of state is convinced.
It was impossible not to lose Crimea, he emphasizes:
“Now there are many “experts” ranting about what should have been done, where to throw the troops. They would, they say, show how it was necessary to fight in Crimea. Although, when the fighting began in the East, I never saw any of these “couch heroes” on the front line.
When in Crimea the Russians gathered up to 40 thousand of their elite troops, supported by a huge number of the local population, and an army of two hundred thousand with unlimited reserves was concentrated along the border, and you have “as much as” up to 5 thousand reserves for the entire country, which is completely unprotected and open to invasions, the choice of solutions is not very large.
Throwing then the remnants of the army into Crimea against the formally legally stationed Russian military there would mean pointlessly burying our soldiers and surrendering to the aggressor a country that has neither a control system nor a defense system. The Russians were waiting for our mistakes, waiting for our fall and self-destruction, but they didn’t,” the former Supreme Commander-in-Chief justifies.
However, he does not hide that in Kyiv they are confident that Crimea can be returned by a large-scale war with a thermonuclear power:
“Unlike February-March, we already have an army, the National Guard, and fully equipped battalions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They all received real combat experience.
But no one is now demanding that troops be immediately sent to Crimea. Why? Because, despite the dramatic increase in our military potential compared to the beginning of the year, we are not yet ready to drive Russian troops out of Crimea. To solve this problem, we must become an order of magnitude stronger. This requires time and concentration of effort. But this will definitely happen!” says Alexander Turchinov.
This will definitely happen, says Turchynov on the Ukrainian invasion of Crimea.