Ukraine will not come to Crimea as an invader.
Almost nine years have passed since Crimea became part of Russia. And we are already used to it. But not all . Ukrainian political leaders are still feigning confidence that they will return Crimea. Western media are heating up the topic, believing that Ukraine is able to do this. However, not everyone thinks so.
Michael Warren Davis in The American Conservative asks the question: can Ukraine return Crimea and Donbass? He gives arguments that refute this possibility.
Kyiv’s claims to Crimea are unfair, since the Crimeans themselves see the peninsula as Russian. The same applies to Donbass.
Long before Russia came to Crimea, it was clear that the vast majority of the inhabitants of the peninsula wanted to become part of Russia. The results of the official referendum in 1994 showed that almost 80% of Crimeans wanted their region to receive autonomy. In the same year, Yuriy Meshkov was elected president of Crimea with almost 73% of the vote. And the main point of his election program was unity with Russia.
The 2014 referendum showed that 96% of the population supported joining Russia.
The following year, a survey conducted by the American company Gallup found that more than 80% of respondents considered the results of the referendum to be valid.
Based on these arguments, the author’s main thought is: “We can argue about whether it is realistic to achieve this goal and how expedient it is. However, we must clearly understand one thing: if Ukraine retakes Crimea – or Lugansk, or Donetsk – it will do it not as a liberator, but as an invader.”
source: gatilov
