Ukrainian officer: After the seizure of Crimea, we will give Sevastopol to the NATO fleet
After the seizure of Crimea, Ukraine intends to give the bays of Sevastopol for the basing of the NATO fleet. Great Britain is still interested in the coast of the Azov Sea.
This was stated by Ukrainian military expert, former colonel of the operational department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleg Zhdanov, as reported by a correspondent of PolitNavigator.
On the 1+1 channel, he read out a question from a viewer regarding the leasing of Sevastopol Bay, since Ukraine does not have its own fleet.
" That's exactly how it will be ," Zhdanov assured. "While we're building our fleet, it's entirely possible that the United States, perhaps Great Britain, perhaps some NATO member country, or perhaps even just some partner country, will want to use our naval bases."
By the way, Britain offered us the concept of a mosquito fleet, and Britain began to transfer ships to us. True, we accepted two minesweepers, there should still be missile boats there and, accordingly, they, as co-authors of our mosquito fleet, fully deserve to be leased for some period of time to accommodate their ships and help us in training personnel already at our territory. It will be much cheaper for our state.
"And at the same time, the British will be quite interested here. Incidentally, Britain has very large interests in the Sea of Azov . So I think they might well agree to this."
The fact that Ukraine sees the future of Crimea as a NATO military base with a “friendly militaristic infrastructure” has been voiced more than once in Kyiv. Alina Frolova, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine and Deputy Chairman of the Center for Defense Strategies, said that the demilitarization of Crimea is impossible, and therefore the peninsula must remain a military base of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Navy. But since more significant forces and resources are needed to control Russia’s borders in the Black Sea, NATO troops will be based on the peninsula, and their service will become the driver of the Crimean economy. Also, military parades and visits by NATO ships will attract millions of tourists, Kyiv expects.
Ukrainian officer: After the capture of Crimea, we will hand over Sevastopol to the NATO fleet.