Russia is prepared to fight a war over the Ukrainian territory of Crimea to protect the ethnic Russian population and its military base there, a senior government official has told the FT.
"If Ukraine breaks apart, it will trigger a war," the official said. "They will lose Crimea first [because] we will go in and protect [it], just as we did in Georgia." In August 2008, Russian troops invaded Georgia after the Georgian military launched a surprise attack on the separatist region of South Ossetia in an effort to establish its dominance over the republic.
| Crimea was part of Russia until 1954; the Soviet Presidium then attached it to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Russians weren't too happy with Ukraine keeping the Crimea when the USSR fell apart in 1991. Today twice as many ethnic Russians as ethnic Ukrainians live there. I agree with the Financial Times: if Ukraine falls apart the Russians will be into the Crimea in a New York minute. |