CRIMEA IS KEY TO SOLVING THE WAR IN UKRAINE

Zelenskyy must realise that Crimea was only given as a present to Ukraine 66 years ago simply as a gesture.

- JOHN DOBSON

“Crimea is Russian, John, and will always be Russian”, said the admiral sitting opposite me. It was the summer of 1992 and I had travelled from Moscow to Sevastopol in Crimea to pay an official visit to the Russian Black Sea Fleet. I had met the commander, Admiral Igor Kasatonov, on a number of occasions, and had found him open and realistic about the problems facing his beloved country. The Soviet Union had collapsed the previous December and while it was a fascinating time to be a diplomat in Russia, conditions were incredibly hard for most people. Nevertheless, everyone appeared positive about their future, hoping to develop strong relations with the West in their new-found freedom. Despite his hard-line position on Crimea, I sensed that Igor was one of these.

I had broached the sensitive subject of a Russian fleet being based in a foreign country—Ukraine. Igor’s face suddenly became serious and it was crystal clear to me that he didn’t consider Crimea to be anything other than Russian. I recalled his words back in 2014 when Russian troops effortlessly occupied Crimea and carried out a disputed referendum, in which Moscow claimed some 95% of voters had supported joining Russia. Many Crimeans loyal to Kiev had boycotted the referendum, which had been condemned by the US and EU as illegal. At the time, some 58% of Crimea’s population were ethnic Russians, with the rest made up of Ukrainians and Tatars. Crimea had been part of Russia since 1774, when Catherine the Great defeated the Ottoman Empire and incorporated Crimea into the Russian Empire. It was the First Secretary of the Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev, who controversially transferred Crimea to Ukraine in 1954, a personal gesture towards his favourite Republic.