The US considers Crimea to be a territory of Ukraine, transformed by Russia into a huge military base, and will not contradict the decision of the Ukrainian side to attack Russian military installations on the peninsula. US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said this during an online discussion organized by the Carnegie Endowment on 16 February, Ukrinform reports.
"I’m not going to prejudge where the Ukrainians choose to fight or how they choose to deal with Crimea over the short term, medium term, or long term. We recognize Crimea as Ukraine," she said, noting that Russian occupation authorities of Crimea resort to massive human rights abuses, persecution of Crimean Tatars, and other people who did not agree with the occupation.
Russia tortures two Crimean Tatar political prisoners to death
Also, according to her, Russia turned the peninsula into a massive military installation. Therefore, the Russian military bases in Crimea should be considered legitimate targets for the Armed Forces of Ukraine:
“Those [Russia’s military installations in Crimea] are legitimate targets, Ukraine is hitting them, and we are supporting that,” the official said.
Russian occupation of parts of Ukraine started with Russia's occupation and annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in March 2014.
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