If there had been an order to protect Crimea in 2014, the full-scale war in its current form would probably not have started. This was stated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the podcast The Diary of a CEO, hosted by entrepreneur and investor Stephen Bartlett.
„Today, when you look back at that time - February and March 2014, when the Russians seized Crimea - you understand that that is when the war began. Our mistake was that we did not repel them. If there had been an order to protect the country, I am confident that a full-scale war in the form in which we see it today would not have happened. At least that's how it seems to me“, Zelensky said.
„The war began with the occupation of Crimea“
The president emphasized that Russia's war against Ukraine began precisely with the occupation of Crimea.
„That's true. It's just that this occupation was slow. It didn't look much like a war. Why? Because at that moment Ukraine wasn't at war. When they occupied Crimea, of course, there was shooting there, but for a long time Russia didn't recognize that these were its people. They even called them “green men“, because you don't understand what this uniform is“, Zelensky said.
According to him, armed people appeared on the peninsula, whose affiliation was not officially recognized by Moscow. He identified the main problem as the lack of clear instructions from the Ukrainian authorities that the territory must be protected and that the state border was violated with weapons.
„These were people with some kind of weapon on the peninsula, and the problem was that there were no clear orders from the Ukrainian authorities that we must protect our own land, that someone had violated your borders with weapons“, said the Ukrainian president.
The beginning of the occupation
Ukrinform recalls that on February 20, 2014, Russia began the occupation of Crimea, which, according to the agency, was in violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.
Trucks without license plates and armed servicemen without identification marks, called “green men“, have appeared on the peninsula. In parallel, armed irregular formations were created from local residents. According to Ukrinform, they were led by officers from the Russian special services and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
Sources: ukrinform.ua