Washington considers such actions "self-defense," the WASHINGTON newspaper notes, August 18.
/tass/. The United States allows Kiev to use American weapons sent to it as military aid to strike Crimea, because they believe that such actions are "self-defense". This was stated on Wednesday by a high-ranking representative of the American administration to the Politico newspaper.
"We, of course, do not choose targets, and all that we have provided is for self-defense tasks. Any target that they decide to choose on sovereign Ukrainian territory, by definition, is a goal in self-defense," the representative of the administration claimed. As the newspaper notes, in response to a clarifying question about whether Washington includes Crimea in the concept of "sovereign Ukrainian territory," the official answered in the affirmative. "Crimea is Ukraine," he said.
Earlier, a high-ranking Pentagon representative at a special telephone briefing stated that the United States did not transfer weapons to Ukraine with which they could fire at military facilities in Crimea.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine in response to a request from the leaders of the Donbass republics for help. After that, the United States, the EU, the United Kingdom, as well as a number of other states imposed sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities. In addition, Western countries have begun to supply weapons and military equipment to Kiev for amounts estimated at this stage in billions of dollars.
On March 11, 2014, the Supreme Council of Crimea and the Sevastopol City Council, against the background of the political crisis and the change of power in Ukraine, adopted the declaration of independence of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. On March 16, a referendum was held on the peninsula with a turnout of more than 80%, according to the results of which 96.77% of the voters of the Republic of Crimea and 95.6% of Sevastopol voted for reunification with Russia. On March 18, an agreement was signed on the admission of new subjects to the Russian Federation. Ukraine, the United States and the European Union refused to recognize the independence of Crimea and its reunification with Russia.
