08.08.2017, Ukraine.
Russian retirees living in Crimea accomplished Kremlin’s task of accession of the peninsula to Russia, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister Vladimir Omelyen stated on August 8, RIA Novosti news agency informs.
“I think it was a strategic blunder in that time that we had allowed the Russian retirees and other Russians to stay in Crimea, and to live on Ukrainian territory and receive pensions paid by Russia,” Omelyan stated. He called the Russian retirees “riffraff” and expressed an opinion that Ukrainians should aspire to get to Europe instead of going to Russia or Donbass.
After the coup d’état in Kiev in 2014, the residents of Crimea expressed their desire to withdraw from Ukraine and to join the territory of the peninsula to Russia. 96.77% of the Crimean population and 95.6% of the Sevastopol citizens cast an affirmative vote for joining Crimea to the Russian Federation in the referendum in March of 2014.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
