On the anniversary of the reunification of the Crimea with Russia on the Polish portal
defense24.plSpecializing in security issues, an article by security expert Juliusz Sabak was published under the heading "The half-decade of the occupation of the Crimea and the war in the Donbas."
The author writes:
For five years, the Crimea, the territory of Ukraine, is under the control of the Russian Federation. Only a thousand kilometers from the borders of Poland are these occupied territories. The symbol of Europe's helplessness towards Russia. "Green Men" - Russian special forces without insignia and symbols, which 27 February 2014 set up Russian flags on the buildings of the Crimean government and parliament, became a symbol of hybrid war. Threats of the new time.
According to the journalist, 27 February 2014 of the year is a date that is forever inscribed in
historybecause it was on this day that the famous “green men” suddenly appeared in several key places of the Crimean peninsula, occupying government buildings, blocking military airports and railway stations. He recalls how they, deprived of identification marks, are wearing masks, but equipped with new Russian uniforms, Russian gear and Russian
weapons, "Secured Russian interests by occupying the territory of a sovereign state." After that, he notes, the so-called referendum was held at an urgent pace, and the autonomy of the Crimea was already proclaimed on March 9, the occupied territory was quickly annexed to the Russian Federation.
The expert also recalls that at the beginning of March 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted that the “green men” are not military personnel of the Russian armed forces.
- Please go to the store and see. It is full of uniforms that look like ours. Let the master go to the store. In each, you can buy such uniforms, the Russian president urged.
He claimed that it was “the self-defense of the Crimean people,” whatever it was. This self-defense was, however, well-equipped, very well trained and organized so that “green men” appeared almost simultaneously on February 27 2014 in key points of the Crimea.
Yuliush Sabak drew attention to the fact that if the “seizure of Crimea by the Russians” in February 2014 passed de facto calmly and almost without reaction caught by surprise, and often deprived of orders of Ukrainian forces, then an attempt to repeat this scenario a month later in the Donbass and Luhansk the area led to the start of the war:
The war in the east of Ukraine was also started by "little green men", but they were quickly supported by hundreds and thousands of Russian soldiers, who did not have Russian markings.
tanks, armored personnel carriers or MLRS. Russia, of course, cuts itself off from this conflict, but no one has taken this lie seriously for a long time. The scale of the operation is so great that even in Russia they no longer believe in little green men. Belief in this was killed by hundreds of coffins with soldiers who died "on vacation in the Donbass."
Further, the expert speaks about the downed Malaysian "Boeing":
We know that these are not “green men,” and certainly not the Ukrainian Su-25, but the Buk-M1 missile system from the 53 of the Russian air defense brigade stationed on a permanent basis in Kursk, was shot down in July 2014 of the flight MH17, with almost three hundred people on board. We know that these are Russian officers commanding the armed forces of the separatists from Lugansk and Donetsk. In their ranks, for example, there are many Chechen soldiers.
The author adds that after fleeing the famous tanker Svetlana Druk on the Ukrainian side, there was fresh information on this topic:
According to documents she took from the unit's headquarters, each regiment of about 2 men is ready to accept another 6 Russian soldiers, for whom the unit already has fake documents prepared in advance showing their local origin. Thus, the separatist regiment de facto turns into a brigade of the Russian army. The army, which, after all, officially does not exist in eastern Ukraine, although the latest Russian weapons, electronic warfare or intelligence systems are regularly tested there, such as, for example,
Drones.
According to the expert, five years after the “annexation by Russia,” the Crimea became a fortified, well-armed bastion controlling the Black Sea basin. At the same time, he states that "Russia also restricted the movement of vessels through the Kerch Strait, blocking Ukraine, including access to the economically significant port of Mariupol, and is trying to make the inner water area of the Sea of Azov." And this, from his point of view, led to the incident in November 2018, when three vessels of the Ukrainian Navy were seized by Russian border guards. During these events, a Russian patrol ship rammed a Ukrainian tugboat, and the ships were fired upon. Ukrainian sailors were taken from the Crimea to the famous Lefortovo prison in Moscow, where they are awaiting trial.
The journalist notes that Russia is trying to maintain a “hot” state of conflict, which costs her dearly. On the one hand, for example, because of the wide range of international sanctions imposed for the annexation of the Crimea. On the other hand, in connection with the expenses caused by the war in the Donbass, as well as the need to connect the Crimea to the "mainland". Nevertheless, the expert sums up, Moscow has achieved almost all of its military goals, politically capturing the Crimea has strengthened Vladimir Putin’s position for many years, and the conflict in the east of Ukraine impedes the integration of this country with the West and the solution of its current problems.
However, from the point of view of the author, the annexation of the Crimea turned for Russia a number of costs:
The costs that Putin did not take into account are changes in the whole region of Central and Eastern Europe. First, as experts say, "Moscow received the Crimea, but lost Ukraine." If after the Maidan, the country fluctuated between the eastern and western directions, the Crimea and the Donbass formed the statehood and national consciousness of Ukraine, as opposed to Russia and Putin personally. The war and the loss of the Crimea forms a type of Ukrainian patriotism hostile to everything Russian.
Yuliush Sabak stresses that now in the Baltic States and other states that once belonged to the Eastern Bloc, there is a growing sense of threat “since the Russian“ green men ”scenario is very likely where there is a significant Russian minority” that can be used by Moscow.
All this, in his opinion, was the impetus for the modernization of the armed forces and increased defense spending, as well as strengthening the alliance:
Another important result of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict is the strengthening of NATO and the EU, the realization that Russia still poses a threat, and the collapse of the USSR was only an episode that slowed down its imperial ambitions. The strengthening of the eastern flank, it became a fact, and the military presence of NATO forces in Poland, Bulgaria and the Baltic countries caused a real shift of the alliance to the east. And countries such as Finland, Sweden and Norway again began to strengthen their armed forces in the context of a threat from the east.
In conclusion, the expert summarizes:
Thus, today we have reached the moment when Europe, on the one hand, stares helplessly at the militarization of the Crimea and the war in the east of Ukraine, on the other hand unites military efforts in defense against Russia. On the third hand, energy, fuel, business, some European countries are still closely connected with Moscow and have problems with breaking these ties.
The article caused a lively discussion among Polish Internet users. Here are some of the comments that represent different points of view:
ValuesIf we recognize, following the author, that the Crimea is under occupation, then similarly we recognize the occupied Polish territories taken by Stalin in favor of the Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian republics that were part of the USSR, and now the countries that have emerged from them. This territory is not located a thousand kilometers from the borders of Poland and not Russia is currently occupying it. Lithuania without Polish support can not exist. Ukraine also. But the attitude towards Poland in these countries is hostile, and the policy of glorifying the murderers who committed genocide (both Šaulis and Bandera) and the lack of Polish reaction to this lead to a worsening of the situation. Thus, the agreement to maintain the status quo in the occupied Polish lands is a real symbol of Poland's helplessness in relation to not Russia, but even countries dependent on Poland. (...) We should remember this first of all, and not to deal with the Crimea, because it does not concern us.
FactRather, the end of the occupation. This Ukraine occupied the Crimea against the will of its inhabitants. And Lviv occupies, and Transcarpathia.
NiuniuA very one-sided view of a very ambiguous conflict. If we are so principled about Ukraine and the Crimea / Donbass, then why did we, without batting an eye, accept the separation of Kosovo from Serbia and recognize this exclusively artificial entity as an independent state? In Crimea, at least, there was some kind of referendum. In Kosovo, no one even bothered to give some pseudo-legitimate form to the provision of statehood to a territory separated by force from Serbia. And the fact that, according to defense24.pl, Russia is doing in the Donbas and what is the cause of international sanctions, is even more bloody and without white gloves is carried out by Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Yemen. And this does not give rise to our condemnation and does not bother us in any way. We do not even think about sanctions against Saudi Arabia. Point of view depends on the point of location.
Maciek - NiuniuWhy? And because what is allowed to us, that is, the countries of the free world, is not allowed to Russia. Serbia, as a Russian vassal, was punished for its relations with Russia and hostility towards the West. Also, the current mess in the Middle East can only be viewed in the context of the interests of the West, read: the United States. Russia, as a barbaric, inhuman force that has never brought anything good to our part of Europe, will always be subject to accusations. The United States will always be our hope. And the fact that they are doing somewhere in Syria or in South America doesn’t worry us much.
JacoThe author missed an important fact in the article: if there was no intervention in the Donbas and especially in the Crimea, now there would be an American base, and, probably, missiles aimed at Moscow. And Ukraine, and so was lost.
AAIt is a pity that the author more convincingly did not emphasize that the Crimea was always Ukrainian.
Werte - AAIs always? In the history of a country like Ukraine, it never existed, because this country has existed recently. Its very name is the result of determining its location by neighbors, and not of subjectivity. And on a historical scale, the Crimea was for some time Scythian, Byzantine, Mongolian, Tatar and Russian. The Ukrainian Crimea was only an instant after the collapse of the USSR, if we accept that there were any grounds for the reunification of Crimea with Ukraine, except for Khrushchev's fantasy and his gift for the Ukrainian SSR.
Marek1For Putin & Co. Crimea and Donbass are a classic tactical success, but for Russia it is a strategic defeat. This led to the irrevocable loss of Ukraine as a friendly / neutral neighbor, long-term sanctions, loss of image, the beginning of the process of military strengthening of the previously almost disarmed European NATO countries and the beginning of a new arms race.
Ooo - Marek1I am begging you. The coup in Ukraine was organized by the USA - Ukraine was thus lost for Russia. If Putin had not occupied the Crimea, Russia would have lost control of the Black Sea.
LNG secondSanctions slowly and methodically deplete Russia economically (...) Maidan and separatism in Russia are inevitable. The question is when.
polewka z fixum dyrdum - LNG SecondThen, what a miracle in such a recession and a fall, Russia is increasing its foreign exchange reserves and the purchase of gold, the amount of which has already exceeded 2 thousand tons? And what miracle actually started the production of the Elbrus 8i processor?
Adam S.Let me remind you that Russia seized with the help of weapons the territory of an independent Ukrainian state, whose borders were not only fully recognized, but also had a signed agreement on friendship and cooperation with it. A post factum statement that Crimea was "always" Russian, not only erroneous, but also arrogant, because even Putin was ashamed at the beginning of the treacherous attack on Ukraine, repeating repeatedly that it was not he and not there. We remember the time when Putin, the white dove, immediately after the closure of the Olympics in Sochi, argued that he would never have challenged the territorial integrity of "friendly" Ukraine. As for the "joining" of Crimea to Russia, I recall that the Supreme Council of Crimea decided to "join" Russia at the barrel of the Russian marines, and the "majority" in 45 of the deputies present in the 100-local council. On the "referendum" is not worth remembering, because it was not even rigged - its results were completely fabricated in Moscow. As for the ethnic composition of the Crimea, despite the fact that the majority of the inhabitants of Crimea are ethnic Russians, it is not at all obvious that they wanted the Crimea to join Russia, especially after the Russian mafia arrived to treat them. As part of Ukraine, they had peace, wine and tourists, now they have a desert, one large military base, zero income from tourism and arrogant expropriations from the "Moscow".
It should be noted that the Polish expert used in his article a standard set of anti-Russian propaganda clichés typical of Western media, such as “hundreds of coffins with the bodies of Russian soldiers killed in the Donbass”, “Russian Buk” that shot down the Malaysian “Boeing”, or “Chechens fighting for separatists”.
At the same time, the author acknowledges that after these 5 years, Europe has demonstrated its helplessness regarding Russia’s actions, and many EU countries (primarily Germany is meant), despite the war in Donbass, allegedly conducted by Russia, strengthen their cooperation with Moscow in such an important area as energy.
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