It
started off denying any military involvement in Ukraine, insisting
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that it was the people of Crimea who decided on their future.
After the secessionist referendum on March 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin shifted his views, and said that Russian soldiers backed Crimean
self-defense units to prevent a conflict.
But
most recently, Putin revealed even more details of his military
operation in Crimea, admitting in a preview for an upcoming
documentary that that it was all carefully planned ahead of time.
The
documentary, which is called “Crimea: The Road Back to the
Motherland,” will be shown on Russian state-owned Rossiya-1 TV
channel on March 15, at 9 p.m. Kyiv time. In the meantime, Ukraine is
planning to send the trailer to the International Criminal Court,
according to Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
Putin
said that he personally oversaw the planning of the takeover of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. At the same time, international think tanks are
coming up with their own research on Russian involvement in Crimea.
The British Royal United Services Institute said in its report on
March 10 that the Kremlin had been preparing its military operations
in Ukraine methodically and extensively.
At
least 28 military units were required to generate the approximately
90,000 troops stationed on the Ukrainian-Russia border and within
Crimea in spring 2014, the report says.
The
story of Crimean annexation
Russia’s annexation of Crimea, formalized on March 18, 2014,
started off when camouflaged and armed men with no insignia showed up
on the peninsula in late February. They were dubbed “polite green
men.” Putin initially said they were not Russian.
During
a press conference on March 4, 2014, Putin said that “there were
local Crimean self-defense groups” and Russia didn’t take part in
their training. He assured journalists that Russian troops could
have been deployed to Crimea to protect the citizens only if they
were “in danger” and Russia had no plans to annex the peninsula.
His
statements went against the footage that UkrStream TV made the same
day, which showed dozens of soldiers walking in the Crimean city of Kerch,
home to a number of military bases. At least five military trucks
were seen on the background. One of the soldiers, an Asian-looking
man in his 30s, told the Ukrainian journalists that they are “Russian
servicemen.” He said they were deployed to patrol the territory and
to prevent terrorist acts.
A Russian soldier is interviewed about the invasion of Crimea on March 4, 2014.
Even
though Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, said it was
“nonsense,” Putin changed his story just a month later.
“Our
soldiers were standing behind the Crimean self-defense units,”
Putin said during a press conference in April. “They conducted
themselves very properly, firmly and professionally. It was the only
way possible to guarantee that the referendum will be free and fair.”
But
in his latest interview to Rossiya-1, Putin said that Russia planned
a special operation on returning Crimea long before the referendum
was held. He talked about a specific planning event that went on until the early morning of Feb. 23, 2014, when he told his special services
that they “have to start the work on return of Crimea to Russia.”
He
also noted that the ultimate goal was not annexation per se, but
a chance for the Crimean citizens “to express their opinion
openly.”
“We
can not leave the area to its
own devices, under
the roller of
the nationalists,”
Putin said, adding that the results of the secret poll that was
carried out in late February indicated that it was the Crimean
population’s desire to join Russia. He said 75 percent of those
polled shared the sentiment.
“Then
I was sure that when time comes even more people will back the
decision,” Putin said. “And we did something that has to be
done.”
Gleb
Pavlovsky, a former political consultant for the Kremlin, says
Putin’s whole narrative on Crimea has lacked strategy. “Basically
it shows that all the events were spontaneous and were made
on-the-go, even though I’m pretty sure that Russian General Staff
had the plans of military operations,” he told the Kyiv Post.
Pavlovskiy
is also certain that the success of the Crimean operation came as a
surprise even for Putin, and now it’s obvious that he wants to run
the show, that’s why he revealed some of the details of the
operation.
Even
though the annexation was nearly bloodless, it turned out to be not
as easy as Kremlin had planned.
In
a televised interview on Jan. 24 Igor Girkin, a former
defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic,
said that the local parliament members were basically held at
gunpoint to support the annexation. “Militants
literally had to gather Crimean deputies in the hall so they would
vote,” Girkin said then.
Just
days after the Crimea became a part of the Russian Federation, the
nation’s defense ministry issued medals for “liberation” of the
peninsula with the inscription “For the return of Crimea 20.02.14
-18. 03.14.” The first date minted on the medal preceded even the
appearance of Russian troops in Crimea, causing speculation that the
annexation was long in the works. Russian special troops first
appeared in Crimea on Feb. 27, 2014, when they stormed the local government headquarters.
Coincidentally,
Feb. 20 was one of the bloodiest days on Maidan Nezalezhnosti during
last year’s EuroMaidan Revolution, when 49 activists were killed during a
standoff with the police.
Viktor
Yanukovych’s escape
Ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s escape
from Ukraine has also evolved significantly over the past year.
“I
don’t agree that Yanukovych ran away,” Putin said on April 17,
2014. “He was forced to leave and went to the regions. And as soon
as he left the administrative buildings were taken over in Kyiv.”
But
now Putin claims that he spent all night on Feb. 22 trying to rescue Yanukovych, who tried to reach the Donbas first, but his
ultimate destination was Crimea.
“I
have invited security officials including ones of the Ministry of
Defense and told them that they need to save the life of Ukraine’s
president – otherwise he would have been overthrown,” Putin
explained, adding that they were ready to save Yanukovych either
by land, by sea or by air. Putin admitted that his special services
“tracked” Yanukovych’s moves using his phone, and deployed
machine guns to move him to Russia.
“Heavy
machine guns were mounted so that there wouldn’t be much discussion
about it.” Putin said the operation was finished at about 7
a.m. on the morning of Feb. 23, 2014.
However,
an investigation published by the New York Times in January found
that Yanukovych fled Kyiv because he was deserted by his allies from
once ruling Party of Regions and security service officials. It is
based on the number of the interviews with riot police, security
officials and senior Ukrainian politicians.
In the preview of the new documentary on Crimea, Putin said that he decided to take over the peninsula after Yanukovych left the country. He failed to explain the connection, though.
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