Neither the transfer of troops, nor the taking under control of the strategic infrastructure were noticed by the Ukrainian leadership.
This was told by the ex-secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine, as well as the former acting president of Ukraine, Alexander Turchinov, who is suspected in political circles of deliberate inaction when Crimea reunited with Russia.
On the air of Channel Five, owned by ex-president Petro Poroshenko, his comrade-in-arms Turchinov argued that the Maidan elites began to suspect the loss of the Crimea after the fact. According to him, in Kiev they did not even notice the “transfer of troops” to the peninsula. It began, according to the politician, on February 20 and was carried out “secretly”.
“Without advertising, they took control of almost all strategic communications that are located in the Crimea, and we don’t even know about it”, – Turchinov continued.
He drew attention to the fact that in connection with the coup in Ukraine there were no power structures or even the Minister of Defense.
As News Front previously reported, the coup in Kiev, carried out by pro-Western forces, provoked discontent of Crimeans. The inhabitants of the peninsula intensified on February 23, and four days later, deputies of the local parliament dismissed the Crimean government. Starting March 1, Russian troops blocked the objects of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the peninsula, and a referendum was held on March 16, following which 96.5% of Crimeans supported reunification with the Russian Federation.