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Kiev lacks resources for offensive on Crimea, West will be of no help — Russian legislator

Viktor Bondarev stressed that Crimea would be with Russia forever

Chairman of the Russian Federation Council's Defense and Security Committee Viktor Bondarev Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS

Chairman of the Russian Federation Council's Defense and Security Committee Viktor Bondarev

© Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS

MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/. Ukraine does not have the resources to attack Crimea, while the West will not help Kiev in this adventure, the chairman of the Federation Council’s committee on defense and security, Viktor Bondarev, said on Monday.

"Ukraine has neither the resources, nor the military potential, nor the support of the Crimeans for its promised offensive on the peninsula. Also, the West will not take any real steps to help Ukraine in this adventure. The Kiev authorities will not go beyond the level of rhetoric," Bondarev wrote on his Telegram channel.

He stressed that Ukraine’s statements about its intentions to establish control of Crimea sounded reckless and arrogant. "Russia regained Crimea in the spring of 2014. It is our territory. Its people expressed the wish to be together with our country. The Kiev authorities’ declared intention to restore the state of affairs of February 2014 is nothing more than flirting with their own citizens and the wish to persuade them of a forthcoming victory, an attempt to bolster the morale of the army and to show off to their Western patrons in the hope of they will increase support," Bondarev said.

He stressed that Crimea would be with Russia forever.

"Crimea has returned home in the most honest, fair and transparent way by means of popular vote. ‘Crimea is ours’ is not only a slogan and a hashtag. It is an unshakable reality," he concluded.

The head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andrey Yermak, earlier announced an allegedly impending attack on Crimea without specifying when it might begin. On Saturday, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Gavrilov claimed in an interview with Sky News that Ukrainian troops would be in Crimea by December and that the fighting would end by next spring.

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