How The Annexation Of Crimea Set The Stage For War In Ukraine | Secret Wars Uncovered | War Stories

17th of July 2014. just after midday flight mh17 takes off from Amsterdam Bound for Kuala Lumpur on board the 298 passengers and crew settle in for their 12-hour flight three hours later mh17 is blown out of the sky over the Russian Ukraine border survivors I first reached the crash site at about Sunset and we found it's what later turned out to be the nose of the aircraft lying in a circle of crushed sunflowers and a group of emergency workers ambulance Crews just cutting people in body bags there are dead bodies kind of literally everywhere but what caused the civilian airline to crash suspicion immediately falls on Ukraine's closest neighbor Russia whenever the Russians are caught out their reaction is always the same always whatever the issue first of all it's complete denial don't be ridiculous this is just anti-russian hysteria of course it's not us despite the denials Putin's secret military incursion into eastern Ukraine is now seizing the world's attention after all just months earlier his forces had performed another audacious land grab nearby that had caught the West napping the annexation of Crimea was partly opportunistic and partly reactive it was a response to what they saw as an aggressive extension of Western Europe into a country which the Russians had always thought of as being part of their Spirit influence it's very important to Putin that he demonstrates that Russia is still a major power in World politics armies are sowing destruction confusion and Chaos across the region you had a real sense of okay I'm witnessing things but there's no way I can really touch what's going on and the Russians themselves are denying everything that's actually going on we were in the middle of a Russian covert operation the biggest land grab in Europe since I don't know 1945. yeah if Putin is intent on taking even more Ukrainian territory how will NATO forces respond as the families and friends of the mh-17 victims mourn the world watches and waits to see what will Russia do next [Music] [Music] foreign to both Russia and Ukraine Crimea sits proudly at the top of the Black Sea climbing speak Russian they're going to speak Ukrainian a lot of their links were very much more with Russia than with Ukraine the original capital of the Eastern Slavs was Kiev the Russian now rule of course from Moscow but Kiev is in Russian is called the mother of Russian cities the links are very strong Crimea first became part of the Russian Empire in the late 18th century Catherine the Great Keen to expand her country's influence in the east send her armies to occupy the region in 1768. but less than a century later Russia was routed by turkey and its Western allies in a humiliating defeat in the Crimean War Russia's military presence in the peninsula was severely curtailed history hit is a streaming platform that is just for history funds with fantastic documentaries covering fascinating figures and moments in history from all over the world from the Battle of Trafalgar and the revolutionary era right through to the second world war if you are looking for your next military history fix then this is the service for you we're committed to Bringing history fans award-winning documentaries and podcasts that you cannot find anywhere else sign up now for a free trial and War Stories fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code War Stories at checkout despite this Crimea remained firmly in the Soviet Union's sphere of influence then in 1954 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gifted Crimea back to Ukraine as part of his program of destalinization at this point he was confident it would not leave the safe borders of the Soviet Union or so he thought when the Soviet Union broke up Russia lost its major port on the Black Sea which was Sebastopol it still does have a bit of Coastline on the Black Sea but it's further around and less convenient in the port is less good not only had the Russians lost their port this newly independent Ukraine is left with a surprising Legacy it holds more Warheads than the United Kingdom China and France combined making it the third largest nuclear power in the world [Music] or the U.S Ukraine and Russia sign an agreement Ukraine will hand over this nuclear Arsenal to be destroyed in return Russia will agree to respect the political integrity and Independence of the whole of Ukraine including Crimea Ukraine stuck to its side of the deal and disposed of all nuclear warheads within her borders [Music] twenty years later however the Russian President Vladimir Putin has very different ideas on Russia's relationship with Ukraine and with NATO when he came in as president he was actually quite open at the beginning to closer relations with the West to joining NATO for example was one of the things which was at least under examination at that time by the time you get to 2014 you have a really angry embittered Putin determined to reassert Russia's standing in the world in late February 2014 on the pretext of rescuing his ally Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovych Putin orders Russian Special Forces into Crimea and begins an audacious military coup and it's done and dusted before the West can do anything about it [Applause] it was one of those moments when you pinch yourself really because you are witnessing what was obviously a remarkable moment in history and you were witnessing what was clearly going to be a tragedy of some sort we didn't know exactly the tragedy that was about to unfold [Music] Russian coup was to embolden put him and lead him to encroach ever further into Ukrainian territory bringing years of Bloodshed and War to Eastern Ukraine when Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexes the ukrainian-owned peninsula of Crimea in 2014. he does so against the backdrop of civil war in Ukraine days before the Russian invasion in February 2014 kiev's main square is the scene of a massacre at least 50 protesters are shot dead by the police [Music] this will lead to the collapse of the russian-backed Ukrainian government and the annexation by Putin's troops of Crimea [Applause] geographically is a Ukrainian territory when it comes down to Putin you have to have fists he doesn't understand good words and diplomacy it's the beginning of a war that will claim over 13 000 lives address event was the result of what started as peaceful protests just months earlier in early 2013 Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovych is being pressured by the Ukrainian Parliament to sign an association agreement with the European Union much to the horror of her near neighbor the Russians were very angry that the Ukraine was going to enter into this this agreement because Russia itself is is running a thing called the Eurasian economic Union and they want still Ukraine to become a member of it and in effect Ukraine entering the association agreement with the EU makes it incompatible with Ukraine joining the Eurasian economic Union as the deadline approaches Yanukovych egged on by Putin proves increasingly resistant to the EU deal the EU also won janakovich to agree to release his arch enemy jailed opposition leader Yulia timoshenko timoshenko was sent to prison in 2011 for abuse of office in what the West believe was a political move you should hear a million of people who stood at the square in maidan and Kiev shouting my mother's name and demanding her to be free will never agree to this or other conditions the EU is asking for foreign he backs out of signing the Deal completely ukrainians take to the streets of the capital Kiev to show their anger if you have people smashing their way into the city hall taking it over occupying it and it's already looking like a Revolution by the time I arrived there you could already tell something really remarkable was happening in Kiev and you had no idea where it was going to end it starts as a movement to persuade president Yanukovych to sign the deal with the EU but it soon snowballs into protests about corruption Medan Square becomes a permanent place of protest against janakovich and his government I will talk to him he had a chance he can have absolute power he can stop the fighting between the people escalate into riots and violence the Firearms teams have been told to open fire and they were just killing anyone as the protests continue into February the new containment measures lead to the deaths of 100 people with thousands more wounded people shooting by real guns terrible it was terrible the moment has come it stopped being a riot with Molotov cocktails and stones and whatever else um this is the moment where it becomes a civil war now hundreds of thousands more join the protesters defense Escalade into bloodshed by the evening of the 18th of February 2014 Central Kiev is basically on fire it's the worst violence he ever seen since the end of the second World War the European Union imposes sanctions on the russia-backed Ukrainian officials they say are responsible including Victor yanakovich he flees Kiev on the 22nd of February 2014. for the safety of Putin's Russia an agreement is reached to put in place an interim government this temporary Administration is headed by arsene yatsenyuk one of the opposition leaders who organized the Medan protests we are to start to form the Coalition in the house I'm sorry I need to look Ukraine is heading for economic collapse and her citizens are struggling to understand why her government refused the EU deal and why so many innocent people have been murdered by the state is charged with mass murder and a warrant is issued for his arrest by the interim government for ukrainians it's not enough to find him and to judge him I think that and I believe and I see that most of us want him dead while Ukraine is coming to terms with its loss President Putin is hatching a plan one that will take advantage of the power vacuum and Shore up Russian interests in Ukraine he strikes while the iron is hot just over a month after the fall of the Ukrainian government something strange is happening in Crimea the internet is down as are the phone lines under this digital Darkness armed forces are advancing on government buildings [Music] but with no communication crimeans can't share what's happening with the outside world or find out what's going on foreign there is no such news blackout the media Airwaves transmit negative stories about the collapse of Ukraine and positive stories about Putin's strong and confident leadership the revolution in maidan was clearly seen by Moscow as a hostile Act it was seen as a coup by the CIA or the Americans and Russian television by this point was telling the people of Crimea they watched Russian television that there had been a fascist coup in Kiev and that the fascists were coming to kill them the inference is clear for order to be restored in the region there is only one solution Russia must move in and assert its Authority meanwhile at the Crimean border cars are being stopped for Security checks the soldiers are a mix of armed men in balaclavas and those wearing Ukrainian military uniform welcome to Russia they are shouting they become known as the little green men uniformed militia of unconfirmed origin they carry Russian guns they drive Russian trucks they speak in Russian accents but according to President Putin they are local defense groups and definitely not Russian within days these little green men are surrounding Ukrainian military bases so the little green men we quickly realized were Russian soldiers of various regiments they were the Russian invasion Force and it became very clear that there were Russians but the whole point was to confuse the West to confuse the ukrainians to confuse everybody which is why they weren't wearing patches and why they weren't meant to speak to anybody continued denials from the Kremlin it's evident that Putin has executed a military coup he's stolen Crimea right from under Ukraine's nose with seemingly little effort and even less resistance now Crimea was actually quite easy because there were Russian troops already there because of the Russian Black Sea Fleet being there so they took all the in all the uniforms and Insignia off these troops slept them around Crimea to take control of the key points and then simply announced that they were in control of Crimea um and they were going to Stage a referendum to see whether Crimea wanted to remain part of Ukraine or wanted to join Russia they stayed the referendum it was it was a pretty crooked referendum but it confirmed what everybody essentially knew which is that the majority of the Crimean population actually wanted to involve Russia rather than part of Ukraine on March the 16th 2014 crimeans vote overwhelmingly for Russian sovereignty in the region but some believe they had little choice in the matter the frustrating thing about the entire episode and about the entire kind of Ukraine crisis is that you knew you weren't seeing what was really going on so the way they set up the referendum was that a bunch of basically Russian Special Forces stormed into the Parliament building took it over summoned the the Doom of deputies the the members of the local Parliament and made them vote at gunpoints to hold a referendum [Music] the referendum is declared illegal by the West and the results are disputed Crimea has not right to have own special referendum to change the borders of Ukrainian state but it's too late Putin is now in control Crimea belongs to Russia again and Putin is not about to stop there [Music] tonight [Applause] in March 2014 President Putin stages a military coup which makes Crimea for the first time in 50 years part of Russia rather than Ukraine thousands will die as Russian forces go on to wage a war in eastern Ukraine civilians are caught in the crossfire these actions were sown three years earlier in 2011 Putin is voted president of Russia for the second time but after over a decade in power as either president or prime minister there's a problem the results of the Parliamentary elections are under scrutiny with strong claims they were rigged Putin's United Russia party wins with 49 of the vote but observers and citizens sharing videos on social media say the vote was not free and fair let's go December 2011. 50 000 people take to the streets of Moscow shouting Putin is a thief [Applause] it's the largest protest since the fall of the Soviet Union well the 2011-2012 protests were probably the biggest protests that the Putin regime has experienced in its 20 year existence and the protests were therefore actually quite personally directed against him and against the prospect of him becoming president again and I think he felt that quite acutely although the Kremlin allows the Gatherings the streets aligned with armed police and Riot troops Putin has never experienced dissent of this kind but he has watched as leaders in neighboring Nations have been toppled and it all began with public demonstrations [Applause] honestly enjoy in Georgia the rose Revolution was born out of protests about parliamentary elections Edward schrevard naze was forced from power in 2003. it was brutal and very quick and in December 2004 Ukraine had already been the scene of a humiliating reversal for Putin Ukrainian presidential election of that year Western Ukraine voted overwhelmingly for pro-european reformer Victor yashenko politician deemed so dangerous to Russia that he was the target of an assassination attempt leaving him badly disfigured [Music] in Ukraine which much more aligned with Russia voted for Victor Yanukovych Putin's candidate for the role although the results are hotly disputed it is Yanukovych who has declared the winner the controversy around the outcome quickly escalates as U.N observers claim the election has been stolen Putin tells the West to back off but Victor yoshenko's supporters march on Kiev wearing orange demanding the results be discounted you do not trust these guys because they've already shown that they are very much corrupted in December 2004 these peaceful demonstrations continue they become known as the orange Revolution the Ukrainian Supreme Court declares the result invalid and orders a new election [Music] on the 23rd of January 2005 to the dismay of Vladimir Putin yashenko finally wins the presidency of Ukraine Putin saw that as a major personal defeat for himself and instantly in his mind this was the West this was the CIA or whoever opposing a russian-backed candidate in the country Ukraine which Russia regarded to some extent still regards as the country Which is closest to them in every way for the next five years Putin makes yashenko's presidency extremely difficult constantly seeking to destabilize the government in 2010 he finally installs his puppet Victor Yanukovych to the Ukrainian presidency but for Putin the threat from the West is never ending and it comes in the form of NATO former Eastern Bloc countries are now fully paid up members of the Western Alliance NATO is joined by three proud democracies countries that have proven their ability to meet Alliance responsibilities uphold Alliance values and defend Alliance interests 1999 Poland Hungary and the Czech Republic joined NATO soon afterwards so did seven former communist Eastern European countries and as membership spreads eastwards NATO troops and Equipment are building up uncomfortably close to Russia's border [Applause] Russia and NATO's relationship has never been easy founded in 1949 NATO's first Secretary General Lord Hastings Isme declared his mission as to keep the Soviet Union out the Americans in and the Germans down when the Soviet Union fell Russia and NATO started cooperating at least on the surface but at its heart this relationship is underpinned by Deep suspicion and mistrust on both sides you need to think about this expansion of NATO look out from Moscow and what you have what what you have seen is the enemy moving four or five hundred miles closer to the Russian Heartland nato in turn accuses Russia of a pattern of dangerous Behavior including aggression towards neighbor Georgia cyber attacks on the west and of lying about her military exercises so when in 2014 moscow's vassal Victor Yanukovych zousted once again by popular descent Putin gets nervous he fears that Ukraine and Crimea will fall in with NATO something he will not permit he does not stop at Crimea but orders his forces to press further into eastern Ukraine to reinforce his point and he faces Little Resistance at home where most Russians believe Crimea should be Russian almost no Russian or think that Putin was wrong to take back Crimea this is Russian Land There was in their view an unconstitutional coup in Ukraine it was right to bring it home to reunite it state-controlled media presented the annexation of Crimea as the rightful Return of the region to Russia in accordance with her people's wishes it gives Putin peace of mind as Russian warships now have unfettered access to the Black Sea port of sevastopol this time 160 years since the bloody Crimean War the Western response to Russian expansion is very different there are no boots on the ground instead they decide to hit Russia where they hope it hurts most in her wallet the major sanctions we're announcing today will continue to ratchet up the pressure on Russia including the cronies and companies that are supporting Russia's illegal actions in Ukraine in the minds of the people who run Russia security questions always Trump economic questions or any other sort the sanctions don't appear to have any great effect when faced with threats to the security of Mother Russia Putin is prepared to take almost any action and he's about to up the ante even further [Music] April 2014 and Crimea is under Russian control after Putin's forces secretly invaded the territory but it seems as if Putin isn't stopping there there is significant unrest in the donbass region where pro-russian militia are engaged in Warfare with Ukrainian forces protests are held in the cities of Donetsk and kharkiv calling for referendums on independence from Ukraine is thank you independent independent region you know we like the independence we know terrorism the pro-russian separatist movement in donbass is extremely excited and a lot of people are extremely excited because if you have been living in a very poverty stricken rural part of Ukraine great the prospect of being taken into Russia sounds wonderful donbass links in to Ukraine all the way along the frontier there much harder to sustain questions about where it ends and what you do around it the Russians would like it to have enough autonomy to be their agent inside the Ukrainian political system but they don't want to to have the problems of trying to reintegrate it in into Russia and a small group of pro-russian separatists in eastern Ukraine are trying to get backing for their cause these people were basically promoting the the Crimean example for Eastern Ukraine they were advocating for Russia to to do something similar and trying to gather public support for a Russian intervention in Ukraine's Eastern regions as well ukrainians start to worry that Putin won't stop at crimea's Borders they fear his ambition is to absorb the rest of eastern Ukraine [Applause] russian-backed separatists attack government buildings and engage in running battles across the region Sinister evidence starts to emerge that these groups are well equipped they have anti-aircraft Weapons Under attempting to shoot down military aircraft but commercial airlines do not realize the extent of the danger [Music] so as eastern Ukraine was currently part of a war zone that were flight regulations that were in place around the area that required aircraft to Fly Above a certain Heights and the belief was that if the separatists did have missile systems they were only missile systems that could reach a certain altitude but unfortunately on July 17th this proved to be wrong on 17 17 2014. despite flying 33 000 feet above the no-fly zone flight mh17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur is hit by a missile all 298 on board 80 of whom are children are killed [Music] Dutch investigators brought in to determine who is responsible for shooting down the plane are met with hostility but they get help from a surprising source members of the public start to share their footage Valley cat does something called online open source investigation which uses publicly available material from online sources to describe all kinds of discoveries in the case of mh17 the first thing that was really being shared from the ground that seemed important were photographs and videos that showed a book missile launcher being transported through what was claimed to be separatist held territory investigators discover that the book missile launcher is Russian owned more than five years after the crash in June 2019 the Dutch prosecutor's office would call for criminal charges to be brought against four men three of them are from the Russian military or secret services and the other is Ukrainian Russia claims the investigation is biased and politically motivated refusing to accept its findings the outrage from the west and the sanctions imposed continue to have little impact on Russian activities in parts of eastern Ukraine 2014 and just a month after a Russian missile launcher shoots down mh17 10 Russian paratroopers a court in eastern Ukraine in fact there are hundreds of Russians fighting in eastern Ukraine but they aren't paid up members of the Russian military there is a secret army made up of mercenaries volunteers and Irregulars the Wagner group are a private military security company they first came to prominence in Crimea in 2013-14 and then in Ukraine in the donbass region where they seem to play a role as mercenaries protecting and enhancing the role of the Russian separatists in that region it's difficult to say exactly who controls Wagner it is almost certainly connected to Putin and the Kremlin but it is shrouded in secrecy as is the supply of weapons and money to those fighting on the Russian side it is clear that Russian military vehicles and Hardware found their way to several destinations throughout eastern Ukraine captured on videos by members of the public and monitored by bellingcat we kept finding lots of videos of vehicles that were not used by Ukraine there were not Ukrainian military vehicles there were like missile systems that only Russia was using so you could establish quite easily that these must be Russian Vehicles because Ukraine doesn't have them they can't have been captured from any Ukrainian missile base [Music] Putin's annexation of Crimea May well have been an almost bloodless coup executed in secret and concluded before either Ukraine or the West had a clue of what was going on he says a year afterwards yes of course it was us of course we did it by force of course we did these things but we needed to lie at the time because we needed to get away with it and the fact is we are only doing what everybody else in the world does which is recognize our nationality but as Russia continues to Fan the Flames of instability in Ukraine an estimated 13 000 lives have been lost including those who perished on flight mh17 for the moment at least Putin seems content to have annexed just the Crimean peninsula but there are many who believe he will stop at nothing to ensure the rest of the Ukraine does not fall under NATO's influence the revolution that happened in Kiev was Putin's worst nightmare according to the Kremlin Ukraine's revolution had to fail and ideally Ukraine as a state had to fail so all future got is an appeal to old-fashioned Russian nationalism he would like to become I think the tsar of the 21st century this is a country which whose whole history in their view has been fighting off enemies many of them from the west and the Russian people pulling together it was really quite an intense sense of nationalism and patriotism there Putin and Russia's survival depends on keeping NATO away from its borders any Ambitions that the alliance has of expanding its influence in Ukraine will face stiff opposition from Moscow the infamous Little Green Men will not go away while Putin continues to perceive a threat along his country's eastern border these secretive soldiers will stay Sharp ready to meet any threat coming Russia's way spicy but um [Music] [Applause]

Channel: War Stories

Views: 152,660

Keywords: Crimea annexation, Matt Lewis, Russia-Ukraine relations, Russian Federation, Russian invasion of Crimea, Second World War, Ukraine conflict, annexation disputes., battlefield tactics, conflict resolution tactics, covert military operations, global conflicts, historical documentaries, historical experts, historical investigations, historical revelations, past conflicts, war in Ukraine, war secrets uncovered, wartime accounts

Id: vgES0xrSEU4

Length: 43min 47sec (2627 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 24 2023