“They talk about the justification of the special operation”: Russia responded to Kyiv’s statements about the Black Sea Fleet and the “return” of Crimea

Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Kyiv's recent statements about plans to "occupy Crimea" indicate the absolute justification of a special military operation conducted by Russia in Ukraine.

“Such statements that contain claims to Russian territory once again speak of the correctness and absolute justification of a special military operation, because only such means can save Ukraine from such representatives of the leadership,” Peskov said.

His words are quoted by TASS.

Earlier, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Volodymyr Gavrilov said in an interview with The Times that Kyiv, with the help of Western weapons, intends to “destroy the Black Sea Fleet” and “occupy Crimea.”

According to him, in Kyiv they consider the peninsula as Ukrainian territory, as a result of which the Ukrainian leadership considers any target located there “legitimate”.

At the same time, Gavrilov mentioned that Ukraine is discussing with the West the possibility of attacking Russian units stationed in Crimea using weapons transferred to Kyiv from abroad.

In addition, Gavrilov believes that Ukraine can "return Crimea" both military and diplomatic.

Recall that Crimea became a Russian region after a referendum held there in March 2014, in which the vast majority of the inhabitants of the peninsula voted for reunification with Russia.

Since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv has been systematically making statements regarding plans to strike at Crimea and the bridge across the Kerch Strait.

In particular, on July 16, Aleksey Arestovich, adviser to the head of the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that Ukraine could attack the Crimean Bridge when the “first technical opportunity” appeared.

Also on russian.rt.com “High-precision weapons”: the Ministry of Defense announced the destruction of the HIMARS MLRS launcher and the Harpoon missile depot

At the same time, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Vadim Skibitsky, suggested that Kyiv could use the American HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) to attack Crimea.

Member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Dmitry Belik noted that the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine made a statement about Crimea against the background of information about the destruction by the Russian Armed Forces in Odessa of a warehouse for storing Harpoon anti-ship missiles transferred to Ukraine by NATO countries. 

“The words of the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine are populism unsupported either in the ideological or military sense, but a sufficient signal for our country to close the mouth of such lovers of loud statements through a special operation,” the deputy believes.

In turn, a member of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots Artyom Turov noted that the people of Ukraine are being held hostage by the West.

“The power in this country has completely degraded, and the Ukrainian people are used by the united West to solve their tasks of containing Russia and, in fact, are being held hostage.

And such officials confirm over and over again that the goals of the SVO are related to the denazification, demilitarization of Ukraine, and under any circumstances the operation will be brought to its logical end, ”the deputy said in an interview with RT.

According to him, we are talking about protecting civilians on the territory of Russia, in the liberated territories.

Political scientist Ivan Mezyuho believes that the West could theoretically allow Kyiv to launch missiles in the direction of the Crimea, but Russia in this case will give the most severe response.

At the same time, the expert is of the opinion that statements about the alleged readiness to attack Crimea have a number of objectives.

In particular, he mentioned the creation of an appropriate informational noise.

“Today, many statements by the Ukrainian military are made, on the one hand, for pro forma, and on the other hand, to maintain informational noise in the Western mass media around the topic of Ukraine and the provision of humanitarian and military assistance to it from Western powers, primarily from the countries of the European continent,” Mezuho said in an interview with an RT correspondent.