How Ukraine "lost" Crimea. The DBR named its version

Глянько Катерина
·
17:13, 16 September
How Ukraine
Image source: Крим Реалії

Based on the results of the pre-trial investigation, the State Bureau of Investigation has established the real reasons and conditions for the collapse of the armed forces and the occupation of Crimea, which began long before 20 of February 2014, and the emergence of "green men".

It was reported by Suspilne.

According to the agency, the pre-trial investigation into the treason of the former Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Volodymyr Zaman has been completed. He, along with former President Viktor Yanukovych and two former defence ministers, Dmitry Salamatin and Pavel Lebedev, undermined defence capabilities, sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of the state between 2012 and 2014.

Investigators identified 5 main episodes of the crime that eventually led to the occupation of Crimea:

1. Reduction of the Armed Forces

The agency noted that despite the return to non-aligned status, which required an increase in the number of the army, during 2012-2013, the number of the army was reduced from 240 thousand to 162 thousand servicemen.

2. Undermining the state of mobilization readiness

The DBR noted that in 2013, half of the staff of military enlistment offices was reduced. As a result, military units were staffed by only 25-55%.

"Besides, the" politer "addition of mobilization resources to military units was curtailed and the accounting of military equipment was destroyed," the department said.

3. Destruction of air defence systems of Crimea

According to the DBR, control of the Crimean air defence system was transferred to the command of the Ukrainian Navy on the peninsula, which later moved to the side of the enemy. One of the two brigades of S-300V SAMs was also reduced and the modernization programs of S-125 and S-200V SAMs were stopped.

4. Illegal organizational changes and levelling of strategic defence documents

The State Bureau of Investigation noted that the large-scale organizational changes made by the Armed Forces in 2013 contradicted the law and were not included in the country's strategic defence documents, which prevented the Armed Forces from forming a strike group and protecting Ukraine's territorial integrity.

5. Failure to take measures to respond to external threats

The DBR stressed that despite numerous intelligence reports that indicated the preparation of an offensive operation by the Russian Federation in late 2013 - early 2014, no measures were taken to bring the Armed Forces to higher levels of combat readiness, organize the territorial defence and conduct large-scale military exercises in Crimea.

The agency summed up that these actions in their entirety are interrelated and led to the Russian invasion of the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol with their subsequent occupation.

What is known

  • On 26 of February 2014, the Russian military appeared en masse in the Crimea. They called themselves "green men", and the official authorities of the Russian Federation denied that they occupied the peninsula. On the night of February 27, they seized the administrative buildings of the Crimea, Belbek airport, closed the ferry, cut off the connection of the peninsula with the rest of Ukraine. In the following weeks, the Russians blocked Ukrainian troops.