Panic in Kyiv: Putin is turning Crimea into a powerful base like no other on the Black Sea
Kyiv, October 26 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Ryabov) – Vladimir Putin is rapidly turning Crimea into a powerful military base, threatening the “soft underbelly of Europe.” writes the newspaper “Zerkalo Nedeli”, considered influential in Kyiv.
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“The creation of a very large military base, which has no analogues in the Black Sea, is proceeding at a frantic pace... The other day a message appeared that two and a half times more fuel for the winter was brought to Crimea for the needs of the military than last year... The Russian Ministry of Defense plans to complete year to present battle flags to 40 new military units in Crimea... It is known that the battle flag is not awarded to a company, not to a battalion. It is awarded to a regiment-brigade type formation. That is, we can say that 40 new regiments or brigades have appeared in Crimea. Each - 2-3 thousand people. This allows us to believe that if at the time of the annexation of Crimea we were talking about approximately 20 thousand Black Sea Fleet military personnel, then soon the number of Russian military personnel of various types of troops could reach 100 thousand or more,” the publication says.
“Two regiments of strategic bombers, one of which is missile carriers, and the second can carry bombs and missiles... Two regiments of fighters, Bastion coastal missile systems, a formation of Iskander-M operational-tactical missile systems, which is allegedly deployed today in Dzhankoy. Equipment and units that were very actively re-equipped and trained in the North Caucasus, Abkhazia and South Ossetia over the previous two years are being redeployed to Crimea. Therefore, Mr. Putin threatens the world with his finger. Like, here is my nuclear base, with missiles and bombers, it is located at a distance of 200-300 kilometers from the borders of the EU and NATO. Today there is not a single such base in the soft underbelly of Europe, as Bulgaria and Romania are sometimes called. This changes the entire military-strategic balance in Europe, in the Mediterranean region, and even in the Middle East,” writes Zerkalo Nedeli.