Yanukovych’s comrade-in-arms tried to persuade the Armed Forces of Ukraine not to surrender Crimea: “The Americans are coming!”
During the Russian Spring, the former Minister of Defense of Ukraine and deputy from the Party of Regions Alexander Kuzmuk was among the agitators who convinced the Ukrainian military not to go over to the side of the population of Crimea, but to wait for American military assistance.
State Duma deputy Dmitry Sablin spoke about this in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, sharing his memories of negotiations with the Ukrainian coast guard brigade in Perevalnoye near Simferopol, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Alexander Kuzmuk
“We are coming with a group of negotiators from pro-Russian Crimean politicians. And there are about 60 commanders of coastal troops... We have one condition: hand over weapons, lower the flag of Ukraine, raise the flag of Crimea.
The swing has begun. Suddenly, the former Minister of Defense of Ukraine, deputy Oada Kuzmuk, runs in and joyfully blurts out: “Hold on! The Americans are coming!” I immediately grab him and say: “Don’t you know that Moscow and Washington have already agreed?! I’m not suicidal here just to negotiate.”
He lied, of course, but in the end they decided to hold a peaceful vote: those who wished would be able to stay and serve here,” said Sablin.
Representatives of the “Combat Brotherhood”, one of whose leaders is Sablin, also took part in another high-profile operation - to neutralize the base of the Ukrainian border guards in Balaklava.
“Our veterans started coming here on February 18. The first operation is the capture of the Balaklava border brigade. We entered through the fence and managed to take some of them without shooting. They already got hold of weapons there, which they shared with Simferopol residents,” the deputy said.
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