On the 28th of February 2014, the leaders of Ukraine attended an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) in order to determine how the country should react to Russia’s actions. The participants of the meeting concluded that Russia was ready for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2014. During that time, Russia was carrying out the occupation of Crimea with the use of Special Forces.

Regarding the eastern border of Ukraine, 38,000 Russian servicemen with a large arsenal of heavy equipment, helicopters and ships in the Black Sea were placed on standby. Two years after the annexation of Crimea, the transcript of this historic meeting of the National Security and Defense Council was declassified at the request of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defense.
“We need to study and review all these facts in order to determine where we should go from here,” the Chairman of the Committee, Sergey Pashynskiy, stated in his interview to Deutsche Welle.

Treason and a real threat from the east

At that time, the Acting President of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, chaired the meeting of the National Security and Defense Council. The head of the Security Service of Ukraine, the Prime Minister, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Acting Defense Minister and others who were appointed after the escape of the former President of Ukraine, reported to Turchynov on the operational environment in Crimea.

Their reports, which were included in the transcript and published on the 22nd of February, demonstrate that such impudent and aggressive behavior of Russia in Crimea was unexpected not only for Ukraine but also for Western countries.

According to the document, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, reported to Turchynov at the beginning of the meeting.  He indicated that the full-scale use of the Army by Russia in Ukrainian territory was a dangerous trend. Additionally, he reported on the transition of the Crimean Berkut under the command of Russian Headquarters in the coordination of the military invasion of Crimea.

“Many of them don’t take the new authorities seriously and aren’t ready to obey orders or to break their oath,” Nalyvaichenko noted. The Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov, noted that, according to preliminary data, 67 fighters of the Berkut (Special Police Force) betrayed Ukraine. “We have established communication with employees who haven’t betrayed Ukraine, but there are very few such people among the police force,” Avakov stressed.

According to the transcript, the then Minister of Defense, Ihor Tenyukh, noted that the threat of a full-scale invasion by Russia exists not only in Crimea.

“Thirty eight thousand people, 761 units of armed tank equipment, 2,200 armored combat vehicles, 720 artillery systems and multiple rocket launching systems, 40 helicopter gunships, 90 combat support helicopters and 90 assault aviation aircrafts have already been concentrated towards Kiev, Kharkov and Donetsk. Eighty warships of the Russian Federation were put on combat duty in Black Sea in Ukrainian waters,” Tenyukh reported.

In addition, he requested the authorization to place the Ukrainian Army on alert. However, he noted that, in fact, there was no Army in Ukraine at that moment. According to his statement given in the transcript, Ukraine can gather a group of about five thousand people from all over the country, who are able to perform military missions.

 “We can deploy this military group to Crimea, but it will not solve the problem with Crimea. They will just be killed there. What can we do with the thousands of kilometers of our border in preparation for a Russian invasion? If they enter Ukraine from the Chernigov region in the morning, they will be in Kiev in the evening,” the then Minister of Defense noted. During the meeting, he drew attention several times to the fact that full-scale military exercises haven’t been carried out in Ukraine for a long period of time.

The West and concerns

The Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrii Deshchytsia, speaking at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council reported that he met with the Foreign Ministers of the Visegrad Four and informed them about the situation in Crimea, and they asked that Ukraine not make hasty steps. “All of them are concerned, but they do not express their intentions,” Deshchytsia said.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who was appointed the Prime Minister of Ukraine on that evening, added that he spoke with the U.S. Vice President regarding their support of Ukraine from the sea. “They haven’t made a decision yet,” Yatsenyuk noted. At the same time, there was a discussion at the meeting of the NSDC on the theoretical possibility of a non-procedural accession of Ukraine into NATO or accession to the Alliance as an associate member.

“Accession, it is equal to zero. Particularly in today’s context, it is definitely so,” explained then Yatsenyuk. However, Yulia Tymoshenko, who was also present at the meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, noted that the accelerated accession of Ukraine into NATO would cause even more aggression by Russia.

Action plan

After all reports were made, those present concluded that Ukraine has to rely on its own strengths. Arseniy Yatsenyuk insisted that financial autonomy should be urgently proposed to Crimea. However, he recognized that it would only be theoretical, as Kiev can’t propose to leave all taxes there but only some of them. This proposal wasn’t supported. The Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Internal Affairs were ordered to carry out staff rotation in Crimea, where it was possible.

Suddenly, a phone call from the Chairman of the State Duma, Sergey Nayshkin to Oleksandr Turchynov interrupted the meeting. He strongly urged the Acting President of Ukraine to make tough decisions in relation to Ukraine. After the phone call, Turchynov stated that Russia likely has decided to deploy troops not only to Crimea, but elsewhere in Ukraine as well and put the decision to impose Martial Law in Ukraine to the vote of the National Security and Defense Council.

However, none of those present supported it. The Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine, Stepan Kubiv and the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, noted that the treasury was empty at that moment and Ukraine had no money to be at war with Russia.

  Ukraine

Comments