People on the embankment in Sevastopol. File photoMOSCOW, Jan 22The head of the German Navy, Vice Admiral Kai-Achim Schönbach, believes that Crimea will never return to Ukraine.
"There is no Crimean peninsula, it will never return . <…> This is a fact", Schoenbach said at a conference of the Indian Institute of Defense Studies Manohara Parrikar, commenting on the situation in Ukraine.
Discussing countries that want to join NATO, the vice admiral noted that Georgia meets the criteria for joining the alliance, but its membership is «unreasonable.» According to Schoenbach, India and Germany need Russia to confront the PRC. Crimea became a Russian region after a referendum held there in March 2014, in which 96.77% of the voters of the Republic of Crimea and 95.6% of the inhabitants of Sevastopol spoke for joining Russia. Ukraine still considers Crimea its own, but temporarily occupied territory. The Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that the inhabitants of Crimea democratically, in full accordance with international law and the UN Charter, voted for reunification with Russia. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the issue of Crimea is «finally closed».