The head of the Crimean parliament linked Russia's security with the deprivation of Ukraine's access to the Black SeaSIMFEROPOL, 8 Mar – RIA Novosti.
The head of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, believes that Ukraine should be deprived of access to the Black Sea – this can give security guarantees to Crimea and new regions of the Russian Federation.
"We do not know the specific plans of the special operation. All that is voiced is denazification and demilitarization. It seems to us from Crimea that demilitarization without taking control of Odessa and depriving Ukraine of access to the Black Sea will be incomplete. No other option will give guaranteed security to either us or the new regions of the Russian Federation," Konstantinov told RIA Novosti.
According to him, another dividing line is the Dnieper River.
"But on both banks of the river there are several large cities: Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, the same Kiev. Cutting these agglomerations with demarcation lines is not our method. So all these cities should be taken away. Thus, the Kiev-Odessa line is being planned, to the east of which we have no right to leave anything to anyone. And then as it turns out," Konstantinov stressed.
Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. President Vladimir Putin called its goal "the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." To do this, according to him, it is planned to carry out "demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine", to bring to trial all war criminals responsible for "bloody crimes against civilians" of Donbass. The ultimate goal of the operation, according to the Supreme Commander—in-chief, is "the liberation of Donbass and the creation of conditions that would guarantee the security of Russia itself."
Crimea became a Russian region in March 2014 following a referendum following a coup in Ukraine. In the 2014 referendum, 96.77% of voters in Crimea and 95.6% in Sevastopol voted for joining Russia. Ukraine still considers Crimea its temporarily occupied territory, many Western countries support Kiev on this issue. For its part, the Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that the residents of Crimea voted for reunification with Russia democratically, in full compliance with international law and the UN Charter. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the issue of Crimea is "finally closed."
Referendums on joining Russia were held from September 23 to 27 last year in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, as well as in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. According to the results of processing 100% of ballots in the DPR, 99.23% of those who voted for joining the Russian Federation, 98.42% in the LPR, 87.05% in the Kherson region, 93.11% in the Zaporozhye region. On September 30, Putin spoke in the Kremlin following the results of these referendums, after which he signed agreements with the heads of regions on their admission to Russia.
