Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why ZELENSKY can't and won't give up Crimea
BBC ^ | April 24 | Paul Kirby

Posted on 04/24/2025 10:50:51 AM PDT by RandFan

Vladimir Putin initially denied having anything to do with Russia's capture of Crimea in February 2014, when mysterious masked commandos in unidentified green uniforms seized the local parliament and fanned out across the peninsula.

Those "little green men" marked the start of Russia's war on Ukraine, which culminated in the 2022 full-scale invasion.

The future of Crimea is now at the centre of President Donald Trump's peace plan and has prompted Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky to rule out recognising Russian control of the peninsula.

The exact terms of his plan have not been published, but reports suggest it would include the US recognising Crimea as a legal part of Russia - de jure in Latin.

For Trump, Ukraine's southern peninsula was "lost years ago" and "is not even a part of discussion" in peace talks.

But for Zelensky to renounce Crimea as an indivisible part of Ukraine would be unconscionable.

In the words of opposition MP Iryna Gerashchenko "territorial integrity and sovereignty is a red line for Ukraine and Ukrainians".

Trump made the point that "if [Volodymyr Zelensky] wants Crimea, why didn't they fight for it 11 years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?"

Few shots were fired, but Crimea was seized at gunpoint during a power vacuum.

Putin later admitted hatching the land-grab in an all-night meeting with his officials days after Ukraine's pro-Russian leader was ousted in Kyiv.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Conspiracy
KEYWORDS: bbc; bbcfakenews; crimea; delusionalzeepers; delusionalzeeping; donedeal; giveitupzeepers; paulkirby; rinofan; rinopaul; rupaul; searchstillworks
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 last
To: dennisw

You assume that Putin’s successor will be another Gorbachev.


61 posted on 04/24/2025 3:49:43 PM PDT by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: Seruzawa
You assume that Putinโ€™s successor will be another Gorbachev.

Unlikely. But there's that possibility...

62 posted on 04/24/2025 3:50:59 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: Karl Spooner

Run it though an AI of your choosing or do a google or bing search of your choosing. You will get the same AI results I posted.

In 2010 Crimea did not mind being a peaceful part of Ukraine. Dittos for the ethnic Russians there. Prove me wrong.


63 posted on 04/24/2025 4:15:51 PM PDT by dennisw (๐Ÿ’ฏ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Truth is Hate to those who Hate the Truth. ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ’ฏ)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: Chad_the_Impaler; WoofDog123
I thought the Black Sea Fleet has been ejected from Crimea for the most part.

They've been launching Kalibr missiles into Ukraine from the Black Sea from at least 2024 now.

.

https://ukranews.com/en/news/1078038-russia-deploys-11-ships-to-black-sea-including-4-missile-carriers-navy

64 posted on 04/24/2025 4:45:12 PM PDT by Karl Spooner (Putin: "Time to finish off the Ukraine troops"- 3/28/25)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: RandFan

“But for Zelensky to renounce Crimea as an indivisible part of Ukraine would be unconscionable”

It’s already gone. Zelensky needs to be gone before peace can be achieved. He’s gotten a generation of young men killed by doing the bidding of misguided Americans and Europeans drunk on deep-state ganga weed. He hasn’t had the full defeat experience yet which is the last thing the American and European traitors in the deep state will ever do for him - but for how much longer?

It’s over. Crimea is Russia, so is Eastern Ukraine. Like it or not, it’s the way it is.


65 posted on 04/24/2025 5:00:23 PM PDT by RFEngineer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
What changed their mind after 2013, (only 23% favored joining Russia according to you), when they voted to align with Russia in 2014 overwhelmingly and then vote for Putin in 2024, overwhelmingly? You and your Ai don't make sense.

If it was all fixed there would be a lot of commotion going on there and shoved in our face ever day.

66 posted on 04/24/2025 5:05:50 PM PDT by Karl Spooner (Putin: "Time to finish off the Ukraine troops"- 3/28/25)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: Karl Spooner

Those ships are deploying to the Black Sea from naval bases in Russia proper. We are talking about the naval bases in Crimea.


67 posted on 04/24/2025 5:35:24 PM PDT by Chad_the_Impaler
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: Chad_the_Impaler

Oh, okay. That does make sense with all the US missiles attempting to come in there.


68 posted on 04/24/2025 5:38:39 PM PDT by Karl Spooner (Putin: "Time to finish off the Ukraine troops"- 3/28/25)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: RandFan

He WILL and he already has! Crimea river! Trump said today that Obama gave Crimea to Russia 11 years ago.

Good luck getting it back.


69 posted on 04/24/2025 6:32:59 PM PDT by faucetman (Just the facts, ma'am, Just the facts )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RandFan

He WILL and he already has! Crimea river! Trump said today that Obama gave Crimea to Russia 11 years ago.

Good luck getting it back.


70 posted on 04/24/2025 6:33:21 PM PDT by faucetman (Just the facts, ma'am, Just the facts )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RandFan

That ship sailed 2 years ago. Duh.


71 posted on 04/24/2025 6:42:00 PM PDT by MotorCityBuck (Keep the change, you are filthy animal! Re )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Engraved-on-His-hands

No Sh*t Sherlock.


72 posted on 04/24/2025 6:43:44 PM PDT by MotorCityBuck (Keep the change, you are filthy animal! Re )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: alexander_busek
Crimea is 80% ethnic Russian. That is a blatant untruth!
When I visited there in 2001, it was about 40% ethnic Russian, 40% ethnic Ukrainian, and 20% Tatar.

I guess you better fix all the news articles and reports then, because everything I've seen says 80%. Wikipedia actually says 82% Russian going by language and 2% Ukrainian, with 20% saying they were Ukrainian by ethnicity.

Ukrainians are just "frontier Russians" anyway, despite the mythology some of them have adopted.

73 posted on 04/24/2025 8:19:53 PM PDT by EnderWiggin1970
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: RandFan
Crimea and Ukraine have a long and interesting history.

Is Crimea part of Ukraine? Yes and No. Is it of vital military importance to Russia's Navy.....Absolutely. Do lots and lots of โ€œRussiansโ€ live in Crimea? Yes.

In the US, those that live, get rich in New York, retire in Florida. The same can be said that those that live and get rich in Russia move to the warmer Crimea when they retire.

Now let's look at history. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/why-did-russia-give-away-crimea-sixty-years-ago

โ€œ....Crimea was part of Russia from 1783, when the Tsarist Empire annexed it a decade after defeating Ottoman forces in the Battle of Kozludzha, until 1954, when the Soviet government transferred Crimea from the Russian Soviet Federation of Socialist Republics (RSFSR) to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (UkrSSR). The transfer was announced in the Soviet press in late February 1954.....โ€

Did Russia illegally and by force take Crimea? Absolutely...and the world stood by and did absolutely nothing, except a few harsh speeches.

Is Ukraine going to ever forgive Russia for taking Crimea? Probably not. Is Ukraine ever going to forgive Russia for invading and trying to take over all of their country. No they will never forget that and the war crimes committed by Russia.

What is the closest similar situation? In my view the truce between North and South Korea. I think that is the most likely way to stop the killing now happening in Ukraine.

74 posted on 04/24/2025 10:16:44 PM PDT by Robert357
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EnderWiggin1970
Wikipedia actually says 82% Russian going by language

By that twisted logic, since virtually all Irishmen speak English, they are actually only "frontier Englishmen."

I specifically referenced my own personal experience in the year 2001 - which simultaneously comported well with the statistics available at the time.

I have no doubt that subsequent surveys and polls undertaken during the Russian occupation now point in a more Moscow-favorable direction. (Living under the cudgel of a foreign military force tends to color one's survey responses, after all.)

In the summer of 2001, I was a guest at a coastal military spa under Russian jurisdiction - and yet, with the exception of the higher-ranking sanatorium personnel, most everyone first addressed me in Ukrainian.

I will grant you that an informal poll I conducted indicated that, given a choice between full independence, belonging wholly to Ukraine, or belonging wholly to Russia, a slight majority expressed a preference for independence. (I'm not necessarily claiming that complete independence would have been an economically or geo-politically viable alternative - I'm just reporting what I was told.)

Regards,

75 posted on 04/24/2025 10:57:07 PM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: Karl Spooner; dennisw
What changed their mind after 2013, (only 23% favored joining Russia according to you), when they voted to align with Russia in 2014 overwhelmingly and then vote for Putin in 2024, overwhelmingly?

Yes, being forcibly annexed and occupied by a foreign military will tend to influence your poll results.

It was no different after the Nazis invaded Austria - the "fair" plebiscite conducted afterwards retroactively "confirmed" that the Austrian people had actually wanted to join Nazi Germany all along!

Gee, I wonder why?

Regards,

76 posted on 04/24/2025 11:05:05 PM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: Chad_the_Impaler

aren’t you part of our resident nudge brigade?

I have no food for you.


77 posted on 04/25/2025 12:34:05 AM PDT by WoofDog123
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: Karl Spooner

don’t feed the nudgers (despite them making FR basically useless)


78 posted on 04/25/2025 12:34:56 AM PDT by WoofDog123
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: alexander_busek

Putin has never lost a referendum held under his auspices.


79 posted on 04/25/2025 9:38:49 AM PDT by dennisw (๐Ÿ’ฏ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Truth is Hate to those who Hate the Truth. ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ’ฏ)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
Putin has never lost a referendum held under his auspices.

And neither did Hitler.

Regards,

80 posted on 04/25/2025 11:58:48 AM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson