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Sunday, 22 December
society
Opinion

​NATO will not fight: the return of the Crimea threatens nuclear war

Mykola Sunhurovskyi told when Ukraine would be able to return the Crimea

Mykola Sunhurovskyi told when Ukraine would be able to return the Crimea Фото: Gettyimages

Before the presidential elections, which will take place on March 31, the candidates continue to organize auctions of invisible generosity, throwing promises. Thus, the current head of state Petro Poroshenko said that immediately after his victory in the elections, he would return the Crimea. The Director of military programs of the Razumkov Center Mykola Sunhurovskyi told “Apostrophe” how real this promise is, and whether it was possible to prevent the annexation of the peninsula.

We are not talking about a few years, not to speak of a few months. It doesn't even smell like that. I said long ago that Crimea would be returned next 1954 (in 1954 there was a transfer of the Peninsula to Ukraine, - "Apostrophe"), that is, when Russia itself would give it back.

Neither Ukraine nor NATO would fight with the group, which is now in the Crimea, because there are already placed nuclear weapons there. To fight with this group means the beginning of a nuclear war. No one will do that. It was necessary initially not to give up the Crimea.

Whose fault is it? This is our country’s and the international fault. Up to that point (the annexation of Crimea, - "Apostrophe") in 2014, the West was determined to somehow appease Russia. They turned a blind eye to the fact that Russia has already turned into a purely totalitarian state. A lot of money was invested in its democratization, although it was clear that there basically could be no democratization in Russia: what was brought together by force, can be kept only by force. As soon as you give up the slack – everything just falls apart. All stitched together.

The West has lived with illusions – they said that there was no need to annoy Russia and we were told that. That is, NATO did not have the resources that it could effectively oppose Russia, to contain it.

It was a common mistake, including the mistake of Ukraine. In fact, there were operational and technical capabilities to withdraw troops in advance, it did not happen in one day. The intelligence network has been deployed in Crimea and Donbas since 2004.

This was reported, everyone knew about it. Even in Nalyvaichenko's cadence in the position of the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (2006-2010, - "Apostrophe") steps were taken to reduce the number of FSS officers in the Black Sea fleet since it was repeatedly pointed out that the Black Sea fleet of the Russian Federation played destabilizing role in the Crimea.

There were enough funds to prevent the surrender of Crimea.