Russia's“Velvet Occupation” Of Crimea Began 30 Years Ago Expert

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) The long-running initiative of former Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov was funded by the Moscow city budget and continued until 2010. Ukrainian military officer and diplomat Vasyl Servatiuk, a lieutenant general and former first deputy head of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

He recalled that Russian money was used at the time to build housing in Crimea, including in Kerch and Shcholkine, and later in Simferopol and Yevpatoria.

“If not only we, but everyone else had supported housing construction in Crimea at the time and relocated Ukrainian pensioners there, perhaps the events of 2014 would never have happened. What was the situation in Crimea back then? There was the Black Sea Fleet and a large number of military units. Russian servicemen would serve there until they were close to retirement, then leave the military, receive housing, and settle there. In the 1990s and 2000s, Russia launched the so-called 'Luzhkov program,' under which entire residential neighborhoods were built in Crimea with Moscow's money, along with kindergartens, schools, and sanatoriums. One example is the 'Moscow Quarter' near Admiral Fadeev Street in Sevastopol,” Servatiuk said.

According to him, this encouraged retired military personnel to remain in Crimea and contributed to the peninsula's Russification.

“Therefore, we can confidently say that Russia had been preparing to annex Crimea almost from the first days of Ukraine's independence,” the expert said.

Read also: Ukrainian forces strike two Russian Pantsir air defense systems in Crimea

As Ukrinform reported, President Volodymyr Zelensky previously said that if an order to retake Crimea had been given in 2014, the full-scale war in its current form might not have happened.

Photo from Vasyl Servatiuk's personal archive

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