“In March 2014 Russian troops were in Crimea legally, in accordance with the bilateral agreement between Russia and Ukraine of 1997,” the Russia’s permanent representative to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, said in an interview with “Deutsche Welle”. The diplomat also stressed that there were no operating Russian troops in the Donbass.

According to Chizhov, in 2014 Russia has deployed to Crimea 9 thousand troops. The top diplomat claims that the presence of Russian military on the territory of Crimea in March 2014 was lawful.

“In accordance with the bilateral agreement between Russia and Ukraine of 1997, Russia was granted the right to military presence in Sevastopol, where the main base of the Black Sea fleet of the Russian Federation was situated, as well as no more than 25 thousand people of the personnel throughout the peninsula,” Chizhov said. The diplomat specified that at the beginning of the crisis 16 thousand members of Russian armed forces troops were deployed on the Peninsula, and other 9 thousand people were quickly sent there by air.

Regarding the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, Chizhov stressed that there were no operating Russian troops in the Donbass. In response to the claim of “Deutsche Welle” that Russia’s policy can be explained by the unwillingness to recognize their own mistakes, Chizhov answered that “nobody’s perfect” and that “Russia also makes mistakes”. According to him, one of the mistakes of the country’s leadership of the post-Soviet period was that “too large concessions to Western partners were made”.

Concerning the claims of some NATO countries that Russian military aircraft regularly conducted flights with off transponders, the diplomat noticed that “to fly with or without transponders turned off is a common practice for the air force of all countries“.