It’s not often mainstream media correspondents report from inside Crimea, and certainly nowhere near Russian-held territory in eastern Ukraine.
But this week, NBC News chief international correspondent Keir Simmons went to Sevastopol, surrounded by a significant Russian military presence, admitting that it’s not realistic for Zelensky and Ukrainian forces ever to hope to take Crimea.
This is especially as “the people there… view themselves as Russian.” Simmons noted, “This is the closest that any U.S. news crew has got to the Russian Black Sea Fleet in many years.” He explained that “Vladimir Putin will be determined to defend that port – to not have it take it away from him – he may well do pretty much anything to try to achieve that.”
“It is a very, very dangerous standoff.. it’s hard to see how you reach a negotiation over that. There’s military absolutely everywhere, it is a military town,” he continued before saying…
“When for example Victoria Nuland talks about that at the very least we [the U.S.] want Crimea to be demilitarized, I find myself standing there and wondering, how on earth does that happen?”
Ukrainian officials are said to be outraged at the segment, given it referenced that Crimeans see themselves as Russians.
A write-up filed days earlier from inside Crimea and posted to NBC’s website included the following:
This is not Russia, according to Kyiv, its Western allies and the United Nations. It was annexed by the Kremlin in 2014, with the U.N. calling on Russia to return to its “internationally recognized borders.” And following Moscow’s broader invasion launched a year ago, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed Ukraine will take Crimea back.
But according to 73-year-old Praskovya Baranova, who speaks Russian, she feels Russian and lives here.
It appears that the NBC correspondent couldn’t deny the plain truth he was seeing all around him.
David Sacks comments of the refreshingly truthful segment, “Not long ago, these were denounced as Putin talking points.”
Sacks also say regarding NBC clearly conceding that Zelensky’s goal of retaking Crimea remains unrealistic and dangerous…
This is a huge admission because it means that Biden’s policy of “only the Ukrainians can decide” the objectives of the war makes no sense. We’re effectively delegating our foreign policy to Zelensky, who is pursuing objectives that we don’t agree with.
“At the same time that MSNBC is suddenly airing the truth about Crimea, its chief Ukraine pundit is lobbying for an all-out attack,” Sacks also observes of the timing of the mid-week report.
This article was originally published on Zerohedge
