[Foreign Policy] Ukraine War: What does the Crimean Population actually want?

Siehe auch:
[Außenpolitik] Ukraine-Krieg: Was will eigentlich die Bevölkerung der Krim? Enno Schmidt, via Thomas Mayer

In 2014 the Crimean peninsula seceded from Ukraine in a referendum and joined Russia. After a decades-long struggle for independence the people of Crimea were able to assert their will to belong to Russia. Since then NATO has branded Russia as an aggressive occupier and the Ukrainian army attempted to conquer Crimea by force since 2022.

The EU is heading toward a war economy. Russia is the enemy. The citizens should pay for it. In a democracy that should be their decision. To do so they must be truthfully informed. That's why Thomas Mayer has embarked on a "search for the truth in the Ukraine war". One chapter of his book is about Crimea. What emerges might shock or at least astonish. This chapter from the audiobook version narrated by Enno Schmidt is available online for free.

With Crimea's secession from Ukraine in March 2014 the civil war in eastern Ukraine began and escalated into the Ukraine War in February 2022. The Kyiv government's goal of conquering Crimea and the Donbas regions and reintegrating them into Ukraine did not allow for a peace and continues to stand in the way of it. Putin it is argued should not be rewarded for his aggression with territorial gains.

But what do the people of Crimea actually want? This central question is addressed in the audiobook chapter of the book "Searching for Truth in the Ukraine War", which depicts the history of Crimea.

During Soviet times in January 1991 a referendum was held in Crimea in which 93 percent of voters supported Crimea's independence from Ukraine and its participation as the "Autonomous Republic of Crimea" in the new union planned by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. This demonstrates a clear rejection of Ukraine by the Crimean population and a clear plea for union with Russia.

But Kyiv ignored the result and denied Crimea the right to self-determination. On December 1, 1991 a referendum was held across Ukraine in which 92.3 percent of Ukrainians voted for Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union. Thus Ukraine was established as an independent state. The Soviet Union collapsed. The referendum law however stipulated that Crimea, which had the status of an autonomous region within Ukraine could decide its future independently of the rest of Ukraine-whether Crimea should join the union with Russia as an independent republic or remain part of Ukraine. But Crimea was denied this legal right and thus Crimea was incorporated into Ukraine.

In May 1992 the Crimean parliament declared Crimea independent from Ukraine again and announced a new independence referendum. However this referendum was suspended under pressure from Kyiv and due to extensive concessions from Kyiv to Crimea. But in 1994 the majority party in the Crimean parliament the "Russian Bloc" under Crimean President Yuri Meshkov revived the idea. On April 27, 1994 78.4 percent of Crimeans again voted for Crimean independence from Ukraine. Kyiv declared the vote illegal, deprived Crimeans of their special rights, annulled the Crimean constitution and removed the Crimean president from office using special military forces. One could call it a military coup.

These undisputed facts demonstrate how the people of Crimea resolutely advocated for independence from Ukraine and remaining in a union with Russia during Gorbachev's attempt to rebuild the Soviet Union and during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In any case Crimea had only been part of Ukraine since 1954. The then President of the USSR Nikita Khrushchev had arbitrarily given it to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. Before that it had belonged to Russia since 1774.

The claim that the referendum in Crimea in March 2014 in which 97.5 percent of voters voted in favor of Crimea joining Russia was a "sham referendum" as we were told is a baseless one given the history. 135 election observers from 23 countries confirmed the correct voting and vote counting. Subsequent polls conducted by Western polling institutes in Crimea confirmed the election results.

And what would happen if Crimea were recaptured by Ukraine? The head of Ukrainian military intelligence emphasized in an interview that Crimeans are not just disloyal but people with altered psyches for whom the only just punishment for some could be physical annihilation. The head of the Ukrainian Security Council also announced punishment for "collaborators" in his 12-point plan for the de-occupation of Crimea. Disenfranchisement, expulsion or physical annihilation await the Crimean population if Ukraine regains Crimea. It would be a catastrophe for the Crimean population. The Western media however pretends that this will free the Crimean population from Russian coercive rule. The truth is being distorted 180 degrees.

Thomas Mayer also addresses international law in his book. This explicitly legitimizes such a secession of Crimea from Ukraine and its accession to Russia. The same applies to the Donbas regions. Weapons and money for Ukraine enable war against the self-determination of peoples. If Crimea remains Russian it is not a favor to Putin but rather recognition of the will of the local population.