Ministry of Defense explained the strategic importance of Crimea and whether it can be returned by military means
Kyiv • UNN
First Deputy Minister of Defense Ivan Havryliuk explained the economic and military-political significance of Crimea for Ukraine. He noted that the military return of the peninsula is complicated due to Russia's and its allies' resource advantage.
Temporarily occupied Crimea is of great importance for Ukraine in economic and military-political terms. It is difficult to return it by military means, because Russia, together with the countries that support it, has a resource advantage over Kyiv. This was stated to the UNN journalist by the First Deputy Minister of Defense Ivan Havryliuk.
Strategic importance of Crimea for Ukraine
Crimea is a peninsula that has strategic importance in terms of gaining an advantage, especially in the Black Sea and Azov regions. Therefore, Crimea is of great importance, both economically and militarily-politically, for Ukraine. For Russia as well
Havryliuk commented on the possibility of returning Crimea by military means.
It is difficult by military means due to the fact that Russia, together with the countries that support it, has a resource advantage over Ukraine. Therefore, the issue of returning Crimea lies both in the military and political spheres. More precisely, it is more in the diplomatic sphere
Olha Kuryshko, Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, also commented on the issue of Crimea's return to UNN.
In fact, the liberation of all temporarily occupied territories, and this is not only about Crimea, but also about other TOTs, is a guarantee of security and stability. Because in fact, what Russia did with Crimea was to build a military base from which it began a full-scale invasion of the territory of Ukraine. This means that leaving these territories in the status or format they are in now is just a suspension, a certain freezing, but it is not the elimination of the causes and not a preventive measure against what will happen next
Situation in the occupied territories, particularly in Crimea
According to her, Russia is currently militarizing people and imprisoning people with pro-Ukrainian positions in the occupied territories.
At the moment, it is quite obvious that what the Russian Federation is doing in the TOT is laying the groundwork for the future – the militarization of people living there, forced expulsion, imprisonment of those people who have a pro-Ukrainian position. New colonization of temporarily occupied territories by citizens of the Russian Federation. Everything, just points to the fact that Russia will use these territories in the future for war and destabilization of the situation not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe
Addition
First Deputy Minister of Defense Ivan Havryliuk stated that Crimea has now turned into a colossal powerful military base of Russia.
He also called for coming down to earth and being realistic about the advantage in the Black Sea, because it needs to be gained and maintained.
"And some temporary sorties to destroy some floating vessels, which no one has been doing for a long time (does not carry out – ed.), no one destroys anything, because the Russians have taken appropriate measures," Havryliuk said.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy clearly outlined Ukraine's position on the so-called "territorial exchange." He emphasized: there can be no compromises regarding Ukrainian lands, and the history of the struggle proves that Donbas, Crimea, and other occupied regions are an integral part of the state.
In 2023, then-Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov stated that the liberation of occupied Crimea would most likely take place by military means. If Ukraine does not have its own military fleet on the peninsula, the state will be in an extremely difficult security situation constantly.