Yuri Ilyin
Ukrainian policy in February 2014 was going to drown in the blood of Crimea, but took no action to preserve the Peninsula as part of the country. This is evidenced by the record of interview of former chief of General staff of the Armed forces of Ukraine (AFU) Yuri Ilyin. The document on the page in Facebook published Maxim Gerasim, the lawyer of fugitive Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Ilyin shows that winter 2014 events on the Maidan in Kiev caused great fears among residents of Crimea. Thus, in personal conversations, the opposition stressed that they did not intend to establish a dialogue with the Crimeans.
In particular, Vitali Klitschko, occupying now a post of the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, promised that the Peninsula “will go even tougher than Kiev.” In turn, the party leader “Freedom” Oleg Tyagnibok said that the Crimean people “wash their blood”. “Break them like a broom”, — he promised.
However, immediately after the start of mass actions for the reunification of the Crimea with Russia the Minister of defence of Ukraine Igor tenyuh was afraid to withdraw the embattled ships from locations. And at the end of February 2014 General Vladimir Zaman in coordination with playing at the moment duties of the Ukrainian President Alexander Turchinov has lowered the degree of readiness of the APU on the Peninsula filled to a constant.
Crimea became part of Russia after the March 2014 referendum in which the majority of voters the people of the region supported this decision. Kiev, the EU and the USA refused to recognize results of plebiscite. In Moscow insist that the accession of the region conform to the norms of international law.
Mass protests in Central Kiev and other Ukrainian cities, occurred in the winter of 2013-2014, resulting in the country the power was replaced. The demonstrations were accompanied by clashes with police. During these events killed 106 people. In February 2014, the Verkhovna Rada declared that Yanukovych is no longer President and left the country.