The US believes that Crimea , which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 , should be demilitarized and Washington is supporting Ukrainian attacks against military targets on the peninsula, US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said , prompting a reaction from Moscow.
“Regardless of what the Ukrainians decide about Crimea , in terms of where they choose to fight and so on, Ukraine will not be safe unless Crimea is demilitarized to a minimum,” Nuland told the Carnegie Endowment. for International Peace in Washington.
When asked about the risk of an escalation of the war in Ukraine , the American secretary of state replied that Russia has many military installations in Crimea, critical to the war. “These are legitimate targets, Ukraine is hitting them and we support that,” he stressed.
The reaction of Moscow was immediate , with the representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova , estimating that Nuland ‘s comments prove that the US is involved in the war.
Crimea joined the Russian empire after being annexed by Catherine the Great in the 18th century . In 1921 the peninsula became part of the Soviet Union and Russia until 1954, when it was given to Ukraine – then a Soviet republic – by Nikita Khrushchev, a Ukrainian.
In 1994 Russia recognized Ukrainian sovereignty over the country’s existing borders, which included Crimea.
Source: CNN
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