Five years ago this week, Russia was finishing its illegal annexation of Crimea, trying to legitimize it by a so-called referendum. The annexation was going on for a whole month from Feb. 20, 2014, until Russia established full control over the peninsula. However, during this whole month, the 15,000 Ukrainian troops located in Crimea didn’t shoot to defend themselves and the peninsula from the Russian invasion. A transcript of the National Security and Defense Council (RNBO) meeting held on Feb. 28, 2014, which is published below, reveals the real state of Ukraine at the end of February 2014 and allows judging whether Ukraine’s decision to not protect Crimea by force was right. How many Ukrainian soldiers were actually prepared to resist the Russian “green men” in the Crimea and who betrayed Ukraine? What did the “western partners” advise Ukrainian authorities to do? What did the Ukrainian politicians propose and decide and could they have stopped the Russian invasion of Crimea?
Russia's War Against Ukraine
RFE/RL: Could Ukraine have fought off Crimean occupation?
A Russian national flag (L) and partly seen flag of Russian airborne forces (R) fly above a Ukrainian military base in Perevalne, near the Crimean capital Simferopol, on March 27, 2014.
