BRUSSELS, August 12. /TASS/. Kiev is unable to cause a real damage to Russian troops in Crimea and conquer the peninsula, Roger Housen, a retired colonel of the Belgian armed forces, told the Morgen newspaper in an interview published on Friday.
"Ukraine is not able, and I would like to emphasize this, to really harm the Russians in Crimea. Not in the air, as it has almost no aircraft and long-range drones left. Not at sea, as the Ukrainian fleet today does not matter much. Not on the ground, because in this case it would have to go through a well-protected corridor in the Kherson area, and it doesn’t have the military resources to do so," he said.
He said a "conquest" of the Crimea is impossible.
"The largest Russian naval base is located there. It’s a real fortress, and the Russians will do everything to protect it. Crimea has great symbolic value for Moscow, and it will defend it to the last. But the main argument is that the Ukrainians are simply incapable of militarily seizing Crimea. To do this, they need God knows how many weapons systems from the West, they need an Air Force and a Navy. It's impossible," Housen said.
The Nieuwsblad newspaper said Housen went on armed forces missions in Yugoslavia and Afghanistan and worked as a strategist in Belgium’s Defense Ministry and in NATO. He’s now an adviser at the kingdom’s military servicemen union and a guest author of the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the US National Defense University.