The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, thinks Ukrainian forces will be able to take Crimea from Russia, and he hopes it will happen by this summer.
But Ukraine’s backers in Washington as well as other Ukrainian officials, don’t hold the same view. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius wrote in a January 24 article that there is a “widespread view in Washington and Kyiv that regaining Crimea by military force may be impossible.”
Ignatius added that any Ukrainian success in the Zaporizhzhia oblast could threaten Russian control of Crimea but that “an all-out Ukrainian campaign to seize the Crimean Peninsula is unrealistic, many US and Ukrainian officials believe.” He said this was due in part to the fact that “Putin has indicated that an assault on Crimea would be a tripwire for nuclear escalation.”
But the risk of nuclear war has not discouraged the US from considering helping Ukraine launch attacks on Crimea. The New York Times reported in January that the Biden administration was holding talks with Ukrainian officials on a potential assault on Crimea even though the US doesn’t think Ukraine can actually take the peninsula.
The US thinking is to put the peninsula under threat to give Ukraine any leverage for future negotiations. But assaults on Crimea threaten a major escalation of the war, as Russian President Vladimir Putin demonstrated by starting large-scale attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure after the truck bombing of the Kerch Bridge, which connects Crimea to the Russian mainland.
The Times report said that the Biden administration isn’t as concerned about nuclear escalation as it was before, and Budanov also isn’t concerned. “This is not true,” Budanov said in a recent interview when asked if he thinks Ukrainian troops entering Crimea could trigger a nuclear response from Putin.
“And Crimea will be returned to us. I’ll tell you more: It all started in Crimea in 2014, and it will all end there,” Budanov said. Russia annexed Crimea following the 2014 US-backed coup in Kyiv that ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and sparked the civil war in the Donbas.
Russia held a referendum at the time that saw 97% of voters in favor of joining the Russian Federation. While the US and Ukraine dispute the results, polling since then has shown that the people of Crimea are happy they joined Russia.
Nothing is impossible, but it’s a safe bet that Ukraine isn’t going to take Crimea, no matter what or how many wunderwaffen the West sends.
Trying to take it would get a lot more Ukrainian troops killed for no good reason.
Also, even in an age where “red lines” are over-invoked, Crimea is probably a real one. The Russians sacrificed 200,000 troops to try to hold Sevastapol in 1941-42, and 100,000 in 1854-55. It’s just as important to them now as it was then.
Yup. Most Westerners don’t seem to understand that, for the Russians and a strong majority of Crimeans, Crimea is Russia and
has been since 1783. Sevastopol is especially central to Russians’ understanding of their national identity. It’s part of one of the most important times in their history, founded by Catherine II (the Great) and Grigory Potemkin, along with the establishment of the Black Sea Fleet.
I don’t think any Russian leaders would dare to let Crimea go without a fight to the bitter end.
You two may want to erase any evidence of your agreement on this issue before our CIA talking pointers are on the clock. They’re not going to be happy with your attitudes. The beatings will continue until morale improves.
oh at last the voice of reason
History shmistory.
the Crimean people decided for themselves where their alignment should be
Under the control of NATO, the Crimea is a land-based aircraft carrier and rocket-launcher. Before the Russians took Sevastopol in 2014, they had a lease agreement which allowed their Black Sea fleet to use that port but there was never a guarantee that the Ukrainian governments would keep that arrangement forever.
“The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Gen. Kyrylo Budanov…” If this dude is anything like Mike Pompeo who headed up the CIA under Trump, he’s lying, cheating, and stealing his way to an early retirement on a beach somewhere along with Zelensky.
The poor guy is just having trouble thinking while constantly having to duck from the incoming stacks of $100 bills our regime keeps throwing at him. He can’t even remember to brush his nasty teeth in the morning.
Florida, or, Zelenski’s place in Italy………..
“Ukraine’s Intel Chief Thinks Crimea Will Be Taken, But US Officials Disagree Washington Post columnist David Ignatius says many US and Ukrainian officials think taking the peninsula is ‘impossible'”
Delusions Ukrainians making hyperbolic statements for the few remaining sheep who believe them.
The war in Ukraine is ludacris with 8 to 10 Ukrainians KIA and 45,000 more missing in action, i.e. vaporized by thermobaric weapons.
“A thermobaric weapon, also called an aerosol bomb, a vacuum bomb or a fuel air explosive (FAE), is a type of explosive that uses oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion. The fuel–air explosive is one of the best-known types of thermobaric weapons.”
Ukraine’s Intel Chief Thinks Ukraine Will Be Taken, and US Officials Agree
And State Department officials agree…and Pentagon generals roll their eyes…again.
Crimea is the one region I believe Putin would seriously consider defending with tactical nukes if there was any indication Ukraine was going to succeed in capturing it.
yep.
Nations convince themselves the impossible is possible: it only makes the unthinkable inevitable.
https://patternofhistory.wordpress.com/
Well, they’ll probably need to move there after Kiev is reduced to dust.
The MIC is absolutely creaming their jeans over the prospect of more $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
But there won’t be a country left to spend it on.
“Russia held a referendum at the time that saw 97% of voters in favor of joining the Russian Federation. While the US and Ukraine dispute the results”
What number would the US and Ukraine believe is accurate? I notice they never say that the majority of Crimeans wouldn’t rather be part of the Russian Federation because that is a given. So they have to fixate on the “97%”. Would they feel better if it were only 70%? and would that then justify this proposed stupidity?
This manufactured conflict between Nato,US and fascist Ukraine has the capability of destroying the planet and civilization very soon if the US does not get their head out of their ass.
For the sake of some sanity our government must tell the Ukrainian government NYET.
We do not have a functioning government. The patients have taken over the asylum.
I just wonder. What language are Crimerians speaking? If Russian is their mother tongue will they be forced to speak Ukrainian dialect?
It’s likely anything written on the subject by Ignatius is vetted and approved by the CIA conduit. So there is a reason for the article. And its timing.
Meanwhile, other high Ukrainian officials, right on up to Zelensky, are saying or hinting that the Russians have amassed half a million troops, and are preparing for a major offensive. And that it will be, at a minimum, a “tough situation” for the Ukrainians.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraine-warns-putin-has-amassed-troops-for-a-major-and-imminent-ofsamsungensive/ar-AA1720FM
Ukraine is winning, and will soon be attacking and retaking Crimea. Also, Ukraine is on the defensive, and faces a tough defensive struggle in the coming months. Either way, the Ukraine, as always, needs ever more and better Western aid. Because it is about to finish off the Russians, once and for all, OR, because Russia is about to launch a massive attack, and the Ukraine will be hard-pressed to repel it. Take your pick, but keep those tanks and planes coming!
Ukraine is already defeated.
“We have no indication that U.S. funds have been misused in Ukraine,” Treasury spokesperson Megan Apper said in Treasury’s first comments since the ‘shock’ resignations.” (following revelations of massive fraud by the government in Kiev).
You know, you really have to wonder just how stupid these Aholes in Biden’s government think we all are. Talk about projection 😉
This Intel Chief must have gotten a word about an upcoming false flag from CIA to perhaps have NATO involved somehow, otherwise he is just blowing smoke out of his keister.