West told Ukraine to abandon Crimea, document says

A newly-published transcript of Ukrainian crisis talks two years ago indicates that EU powers and the US urged Kiev not to resist Russia’s invasion of Crimea.

The document, published by a Ukrainian parliament committee on Tuesday (23 February) contains the official minutes of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council on 28 February 2014.

The meeting, chaired by then acting president Oleksandr Turchynov, was called one week after former president Viktor Yanukovych fell from power and one day after Russian special forces seized government buildings in Crimea.

Turchynov wanted to declare a state of war and fight back.

But ministers and others warned him that Ukraine couldn’t do it alone and that the West wouldn’t help.

https://euobserver.com/foreign/132425