In the early 90s, Ukraine could completely take over the forces and assets of the post-Soviet Black Sea Fleet, taking advantage of the internal political destabilization within Russia.
The ex-deputy commander of the special operations forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Sergei Krivonos stated this on the air of the Pryamoy TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to Krivonos, this was not done due to the weakness of the first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk.
“At certain moments, when it was necessary to make strategic decisions at the level of the President of Ukraine, when he was the President, he had two serious failures. The first is the failure to resolve the issue of the Black Sea Fleet. When we lost, and we could have at that time, there would have been a political decision on the part of the country’s leadership to practically gain the entire Black Sea Fleet.
Because Russia in 92-93 had absolutely no time for the Black Sea Fleet; there was an internal political struggle that was going on, which led to the shooting of the White House in the fall of 93; at that time, if the situation had been used correctly, it would have been possible the issue will be resolved in favor of Ukraine,” Krivonos said.
Recall the day before it became known that the first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk will head the Ukrainian delegation to the Tripartite Contact Group at the negotiations on Donbass in Minsk instead of Leonid Kuchma, who recently left the TCG.