Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma told in an interview with his son-in-law Viktor Pinchuk's ICTV channel how he interrupted his visit to Latin America in 2003 because Russia began building a dam from Taman to the island of Tuzla in the Kerch Strait, which then belonged to Ukraine.
“If I had stayed there for ten days, if I arrived, there would already be a Russian border post. Do you think someone would protect us? It would be the same as with the Budapest Memorandum. I made a serious statement: if you continue, we will shoot,” Kuchma said, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The Russian side then explained the construction work by the need to protect the shores of Taman from destructive currents, but Ukraine perceived this as aggression and pulled artillery boats, aircraft and border troops into the strait.
“If force had really been used, then with a salvo from a division of 20 combat vehicles, we would have wiped Tuzla off the ground. This was a rehearsal for the annexation of the peninsula,” said the commander of the Ukrainian Navy, Igor Voronchenko.