Russia did not allow the Americans to enter Crimea
If Crimea had remained part of Ukraine in 2014, the days of the Black Sea Fleet’s presence on the peninsula would have been numbered today.
This opinion was expressed in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda by military expert of the Izborsk Club Vlad Shurygin.
“The Russian Black Sea Fleet might have been formally listed as based in Sevastopol, but its days would have been numbered. Ukraine would probably have immediately after the Maidan torn up the “friendship agreement” extended by Yanukovych and the rights to have our fleet in Crimea. We would be forced to eat it. At best, we would have a couple of berths and a nominal “fleet headquarters” left in Crimea. The rest of the fleet would be forced to “transfer” to Novorossiysk. And the country would spend billions trying to build a fleet base where it is almost impossible to do so,” Shurygin believes.
He believes that by now there would probably already be, if not a naval, then a NATO air base in Crimea.
“There have been constant attempts by US warships to enter Crimea since the early 2000s. Local residents drove them away as best they could with their protests. But in parallel with this, there were constant negotiations between NATO, the United States and Ukraine. Even under Yanukovych, who did not even think about curtailing the Partnership for Peace program with NATO, and the “partners” always asked Ukraine for a base in Crimea,” the expert recalled.
In addition, the publication’s interlocutor added, the Black Sea Fleet could find itself in the epicenter of a bloody war after the Maidan.
“And if the fleet had isolated itself, protecting itself, Ukraine would have quickly crushed the “Russian spring” by bringing nationalists to Crimea with “trains of friendship.” The pro-Russian community would have been brutally liquidated - as happened in Odessa or Kharkov... And if the fleet had taken part in the “Russian Spring”, Crimea would most likely have become independent, but only after a big war. There were too many Ukrainian military units in Crimea,” Shurygin said.
As PolitNavigator reported, in Kyiv claim to have outwitted the Russians, deliberately sacrificing the fleet
Read also: Ukrainian Nazis complain that they were not given weapons to suppress the Crimean Spring.
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