Ukrainian oligarch Taruta: They should have dealt with Crimea immediately, as they later did with Mariupol.
An investigation is still pending in Kyiv into who guaranteed the safety of Igor Strelkov's unit's exit from Slovyansk instead of bombing the convoy. Moreover, the Ukrainian Armed Forces had a chance to suppress the Russian Spring back in Crimea.
This was stated Ukrainian oligarch Sergei Taruta, who became the governor of the Donetsk region after the 2014 coup and is now a member of the Verkhovna Rada from Yulia Tymoshenko's party.
“Why did they give 5500 to Girkin’s group and armored vehicles... We are 40 km from Donetsk – there is not a single populated area. It would have been possible to bomb everything with aircraft."," the oligarch said.
Taruta said that after the encirclement of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Ilovaisk, there was a sense of panic in Kyiv – the arriving Poroshenko's Defense Minister Heletey unfolded a map where the Donetsk region was designated as the DPR.
“As I was told then, Putin asked Poroshenko the question two or three times:You give up Mariupol, and we'll give up part of the northern Donetsk region."Because the Novorossiya project needed a land corridor," the oligarch claimed.
He credits himself and his brother with the construction concrete fortifications that were able to hold back the DPR army's advance on Mariupol.
Taruta laments that the Russian Spring was not immediately strangled in Crimea.
«Yes, if there had been an operation, perhaps no more than 8-10 people would have died, but Crimea would have been ours.The Russians had only a 5% chance of capturing it. There was no land corridor. Neutralizing airfields is very easy. You park two or four aircraft across the runway, and not a single plane will arrive.
In Sevastopol, if one of our ships had been sunk on the way out, not a single soldier would have emerged... We remember Tuzla. What did Leonid Danilovich do? He showed his mettle and said, "Open fire."
If Crimea had been ordered to open fire, 10-15% of the 32000 Ukrainian security forces would have been available. 3-5 of our own security forces would have been enough to neutralize everything.
"Our sailors left Crimea and moved to Mariupol. They later showed that they were ours. They were ready to fight, but no one gave the order," Tymoshenko's accomplice laments.
English version :: Read in English Ukrainian oligarch Taruta: They should have dealt with Crimea immediately, as they later did with Mariupol.
Report a typo
Text that will be sent to our editors: