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Russian President Vladimir Putin has reaffirmed the importance of Crimea and Sevastopol as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier”, during a public address in Moscow.
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Putin made the comments during a speech in the Red Square, Moscow, on 18 March, on the 10th anniversary of Crimea and Sevastopol’s reunification with Russia.
The Crimean Peninsula, which occupies the northern coast of the Black Sea and Crimea’s largest port city Sevastopol in Ukraine, were seized by Russian forces in 2014.
“Exactly 10 years ago, taking the same stage on Red Square, I recalled that Crimea is often called the unsinkable aircraft carrier. This is what prompted me to say that Crimea had returned to its home harbour,” he said during the speech.
“However, Crimea is not only a strategically vital territory, not only part of our history, our traditions and Russia’s pride. Crimea is primarily its people. The people of Sevastopol and Crimea, they are our pride. They remained faithful to the homeland over the decades, they never separated themselves from Russia, and this is precisely what made it possible for Crimea to come back to our common family. The same is true of Donbass and Novorossiya.”
The Russian president, who is celebrating a recent presidential election win in Russia, also detailed reports that the railway infrastructure from Rostov to Donetsk, Mariupol and Berdyansk had been restored and that railway works are in progress to connect to Sevastopol, instead of using the Crimean Bridge.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously spoken against the Russian occupation of Crimea and pledged its return to Ukraine.
“I know that Crimea stands with Ukraine and is waiting for us to return. I want you all to know, we will definitely be back. When we return and correct everything that the occupiers did on our Ukrainian peninsula,” he said in an official statement.
“What has come to Crimea and the entire Black Sea region along with Russian aggression and Russian weapons? Catastrophic environmental threats, unprecedented destruction of Crimea’s nature, destruction of social life, economic decline, destruction of monuments, militarism. And when the Russian fleet, which is based in the occupied Crimea, blocked our ports in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, it provoked a global food crisis and the crisis of the rights of people – Crimeans, our wonderful citizens, citizens of our unitary state of Ukraine.
“In order to overcome terror, to return predictability and security to our region, Europe and the whole world, we need to win the fight against Russian aggression, and therefore we need to free Crimea from occupation. It will end where it began.”
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, speaking on 19 March during the 20th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, said Ukraine will not back down in face of the Russian invasion of the country and neither will the United States.
“For more than two years, Ukraine’s forces have fought Putin’s aggression with defiance and skill,” he said.
“Russia has paid a staggering cost for Putin’s imperial dreams. At least 315,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded.
“Putin’s war of choice will cost Russia $1.3 trillion in previously anticipated economic growth through 2026 … and Ukraine’s defenders continue to degrade the Kremlin’s capabilities.
“The United States would face grave new perils in a world where aggression and autocracy are on the march where tyrants are emboldened and where dictators think that they can wipe up a democracy off the map.
“When we invest in Ukraine security, we invest in our own security … and we strengthen this contact group’s shared vision of an open world of rules and rights and responsibilities.”
