Former US President Barack Obama gave his assessment of the events of 2014, when Russia annexed the Ukrainian Crimea and thus grossly violated the norms of international law.
The 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, does not believe that in 2014, when Russia invaded Ukraine, occupying Crimea, the reaction of the world community was not tough enough and did not outline clear "red lines".
He said about this in interview CNN.
According to Obama, nine years ago, "Ukraine was not the Ukraine we are talking about today," and the sense of identity and the ability to fight back against Russia "developed after the occupation" of the peninsula and are showing "fierce resistance" now. He says that in 2014 there were many Russian-speaking people in Crimea, "sympathizers of the views represented by Russia."
"Given the state of Ukraine at that time and the prevailing mood in Europe at that time, I believe that we fully contained the blow. We challenged Putin with the tools we had at the time," said the former American president.
Obama said that he and German ex-chancellor Angela Merkel "had to put in a lot of effort" to convince European partners to introduce the sanctions that were eventually introduced, "and to prevent Putin from moving on after seizing Donbas."
"Both I and Merkel, whom I have great respect for, had to involve many other Europeans who were in a panic at the time to impose sanctions and prevent Putin from continuing his invasion of Donbas and the rest of Ukraine. Given the stage Ukraine was at then and the mood in Europe, we held the lines. And then there was a sense of Ukrainian identity, separate from Russia, and Ukraine's determination to expel the occupiers," Barak added.
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