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Erfan Kudus: When Crimean Bridge Will Fall75.08.2022, 15:49 20,816 ERFAN KUDUSPHOTO: CHARTER97.ORGThe war in Ukraine will end with the liberation of not only the Crimea, but also Belarus.Will the Ukrainian army bomb the Crimean bridge? What is happening on the peninsula now? What are the moods among Crimean Tatars? What are the common and opposite features of the Belarus and the Crimea situation? How will the de-occupation of the Crimea and the liberation of Belarus be carried out? This and much more in the Studio X-97 interview with Erfan Kudus, a well-known public figure and one of the leaders of the Crimean Tatar people. Host — Yevhen Klimakin.Subscribe to the Charter'97 Youtube channel - charter97video. Share the video with your friends. Like and write comments.— Erfan, we are quite familiar with you, so let's be informal in our communication. You are a well-known civil activist and, let's be clear here, one of the leaders of the Crimean Tatar people. There is a widely discussed and actual topic. I would like to start our interview with it: the Crimean bridge. This is an especially sensitive issue for you, I believe, because you were forced to leave the Crimea after the beginning of the occupation. Should Ukraine bomb it now?— It is obliged to. The question is: when? However, I can't answer this question. It is the issue of our military, the Commander in Chief and the Zaluzhny General Staff. Why? I can explain. The Crimean bridge today is actually not so much a civilian as a military facility, through which the logistics of supplies, weapons from the south of Ukraine and the fueling of the invaders with missiles, bombs, shells and personnel go. But there is the other side of the coin: what will be the tactics and strategy for the liberation of the south of Ukraine and the Crimea?Will we give the occupiers, that civilian population of the Russian Federation, drugged by propaganda, an opportunity to, let's say, escape? Do we want to give them an opportunity to escape by crossing the Crimean bridge? Are we ready to lock them in this bag, in fact, on the island, as an option? The tactics of our military command depend on this, I believe.Although, you know, today 20-25% of Ukraine is under occupation. We do not know what can happen in a month or a year, after the de-occupation of the Crimea, the possible overthrow of the Putin regime and the defragmentation of the Russian Federation. It may turn out that that side, the Krasnodar Krai and so on, will be under the control of Ukraine or some international organization such as the UN or any other. Maybe this bridge is needed. We don’t know.— However, there are opponents of the idea that Ukraine would bomb the Crimean bridge. Many such opinions are expressed in the West. They are afraid that Putin will then become even more unpredictable and aggressive.— This is nonsense, to be honest. I do not share Western fears in this regard, because Russia is already behaving absolutely inadequately. I mean the political and military leadership. They have already crossed all the lines. They can do anything, regardless of the presence or absence of the bridge or strikes on this bridge by the Ukrainian military. They can do anything at any moment and without any casus belli. There is a war already, and Russia is already using all possible means and methods, that is, it is using all types of weapons, except for nuclear weapons. Nothing will stop them.— Cluster weapons and any prohibited types.— Yes. All prohibited. All non-conventional weapons have already been used. Only weapons of mass destruction remained unused: biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. Nobody knows if they will decide to do it. However, there are no limits for Russia, I believe. Therefore, these fears are groundless. You just need to be ready. That's it.— What are the moods in the Crimea now? There are many Crimean Tatars who have stayed.— Most of them are there. The majority of the Crimean Tatar people are in the Crimea, and will not leave anywhere. There are about 90% of them, in my opinion. Because we returned to the Crimea (I'm talking about the Crimean Tatar people) not to run away. And only those who can be subjected to the most severe repressions, kidnappings, tortures or are subjected to forcible conscription into the occupying army are forced to leave.— Erfan, when asking about the mood in the Crimea, I meant not only the mood among the Crimean Tatars but in general. Because we see either a picture that everything is bad, bad, bad, or Russian propaganda, that everything is fine. Where is the truth?— The truth is complex. It is necessary to separate the Crimean Tatar community that lives in Crimea, which is quite unified and is waiting for a return and, of course, perceived the active phase of the war that began on February 24, let's say...— … with hope?— With hope. When Ukraine begins to win, although the territory is occupied, we resist and the Crimean Tatar community in this regard, of course, looks at everything with hope. Earlier the hope was somewhere over the very distant long term. Now I communicate with relatives, friends, and acquaintances and I see that the release is already in some foreseeable perspective for the Crimean Tatar people. This is one factor.As for the other part of the population, we will call it conditionally Slavic: Ukrainians, Russians, and other nationalities. Also, a sufficiently large layer of them is waiting for Ukraine. Pretty big, because I communicate with them, too, with my neighbours and fellows. Many are hopefully waiting for Ukraine to return. It is unfortunately impossible to express or do something active there. Immediate arrests. There are plenty of snitches next door. Like in Stalin's time. The Stalin-Beria regime of the 1930s returned when it was possible to be caught very quickly.— When you can talk only in the kitchen.— Not always even in the kitchen. Because the means of obtaining information are now more advanced than in Stalin's times. So, that part of the population that is not Crimean Tatar, they are mostly also waiting for Ukraine. That is, people are waiting, people remember Ukraine, people remember normal life and want Ukraine back.— Is it true that the Crimea is now almost full of the wounded Russian soldiers and corpses of those who came to liberate Ukraine without knowing from what?— I have many friends who are physicians. Once I moved to the Crimea, I started living in a hostel of a medical institute. And in this way, I have many friends since the 1990s, doctors, surgeons and so on, who work in different regions. And I can say for sure that the hospitals are all full. I am talking about Simferopol and Sevastopol, many regions, including Dzhankoy. There are field hospitals in the north of the Crimea. Many doctors and many civilians living in the Crimea do not see this. Because Russia is trying to hide its losses, as well as wounded soldiers. They simply burn the corpses of their soldiers, nothing to say about Ukrainians... But they hide wounded and seriously wounded. Then they take part of them to the mainland, to Rostov, and so on.The Crimea is often an intermediate link, the closest logistics hub, a lot of the wounded and killed are brought here. The losses are huge, those figures that are announced, today the figure is 38,140 Russian military: including the dead, so for you to know, seriously wounded and wounded. They are also considered to be lost.But in fact, I estimate the losses many times more. Why? By indirect evidence, one can judge by the number of military medical institutions in the Crimea, in the Rostov region, and so on. There are more losses. Ukraine, unfortunately, does not have the opportunity to know more precisely. Intelligence abilities are also limited, to let you know. I think that the losses are at least 2-2.5 times higher.— Russia is conducting intense mobilization on its own territory and occupied Donetsk, Luhansk and the Crimea. Does this concern Crimean Tatars?— Regretfully, yes. Our guys also fell into the occupiers' troops. Many, of course, run away from the Crimea. Not everyone manages to avoid this, and someone has already ended up in the occupying forces. This is a violation of all possible international conventions. Russia has not cared a dime a long time ago. I have already heard about several deaths. This can affect any noncitizen of Russia. This can affect Belarusians in the most direct way, right today or tomorrow. You can't joke with this. It is necessary either to leave or to take any measures not to fall under this press. And this press, unfortunately, covers everyone, including our small people.— What advice would you give to your people who are now in the Crimea?— It is difficult for me to advise since I live in a free country in Ukraine and now I am in Poland temporarily. But there are universal and simple things. Leave if you can. Especially those who may be subject to conscription. If you can escape in any way, roughly speaking any kind of excuse, up to bribing the military commissariats - then do it. Because in everything that concerns war, there are no principles there. You must not fight for occupiers.Today they violate all conventions, and tomorrow, as a result of such pseudo-legal obedience to the occupier, you may die. I am talking about conscripts. It is necessary to avoid the call by any means. If suddenly you have already got there and you are already somewhere in the front area, then you must immediately surrender to the Ukrainian army.— Are there such cases?— I have heard such cases. I will not claim that there are a lot of them, but I heard that there were some. Because tanks, bullets, and missiles won't distinguish your color. They'll kill anyone. The closer you are to the front, the more likely you are to die, unfortunately. And the chances are very high, given the saturation of the most powerful weapons when often there are no even positional battles, but just shelling takes place t
