“It is clear: Crimea and Sevastopol are Ukraine,” Ursula von der Leyen at the 4th Crimea Platform Summit.

3 comments

1. of course they are.

2. This was never up for questioning.

3. I mean there is a reason Russia paid Ukraine to lease the port facilities at Sevastopol.

   Because Sevastopol is Ukrainian.

   It’s a really simple concept. You start out with some kind of territorial control — say like the US control over the Philippines — and then a day comes when that ends. So you lease the naval facilities that used to be yours, from the newly independent government. Such as was the case with Subic Bay.

   The US and the Philippines do not have quite Ukraine’s and Russia’s history but it is a history that is let us say not unclouded. And a time came when the Philippines no longer wished to lease Subic Bay to the US Navy.

   At that point, the USA could have declared that the Philippines wasn’t a real country anyway, and was always an inherent part of America. They could have invaded, claiming to restore the territorial authority they inherited from Spain or whatever. KIlled everyone and started moving Americans in to “nationalzie” the Philippines once and for all.

   But the USA did something unthinkable instead. They said, “okay.” And worked out alternate arrangements for naval cooperation.

   No one died, nothing was destroyed.

   Today I don’t think there is anyone who would claim that American naval power has suffered since then. 30-something years of continued cooperation have only brought the USA and the Philippines closer together, strengthening both countries geopolitically.

   My point is, there is nothing weak or diminishing about cooperativity and negotiating better relations. It would have been a great way for Russia to strengthen itself and become the global power it felt it deserved to be.

   Yet, instead, when given the chance, they opted for nothing but blood and fire. They have de facto lost Sevastopol, and will lose it entirely before too long at this rate. Their invasion, that was supposed to secure them Sevastopol and then secure them the rest of Ukraine, has completely backfired.

   All they had to do is treat Sevastopol like it’s Ukrainian. Which it is. And gone from there. Such a simple concept. The Americans did it.

   But for Russia I guess such an outcome is just inconceivable.