MOSCOW (TheBlaze/AP) — Russia was ready to bring its nuclear weapons into a state of alert during last year's tensions over the Crimean Peninsula and the overthrow of Ukraine's president, a still-missing President Vladimir Putin said in remarks aired on Sunday.
In this Oct. 1, 1999 file photo a Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile is launched from the northern Plesetsk cosmodrome in Russia. In remarks aired Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country was "ready" to use nuclear weapons in the fight over Crimea a year earlier. (AP Photo)
Putin's comments, in a documentary being shown on state TV, highlight the extent to which alarm spread in Russia in the weeks following Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster in February 2014 after months of street protests that turned increasingly violent.
After Yanukovych fled Kiev, eventually surfacing in Russia, separatist sentiment soared in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula dominated by ethnic Russians. Russian forces took control of Ukrainian military facilities on the peninsula and a referendum on secession was hastily called. The referendum, which was widely denounced in the West as illegitimate, reportedly brought overwhelming support for secession. Russia annexed Crimea on March 19, 2014.
In the documentary, which marks a year since the referendum, Putin says of the nuclear preparedness, "We were ready to do this ... [Crimea] is our historical territory. Russian people live there. They were in danger. We cannot abandon them."
Unlike most of the rest of Ukraine, the population of Crimea was predominantly Russian before Russia's recent annexation.
Putin's comments were reported on the state broadcaster's website after its transmission in the Russian Far East and before it appeared on the air in Moscow.
Putin also said Russian forces helped Yanukovych escape to Russia.
After fleeing the capital Kiev, Yanukovych made one appearance in Kharkov, then disappeared for several days. Reports at the time said he and his security entourage went on a desperate journey through the eastern parts of the country and down to Crimea, looking for safety. Putin's retelling appeared to confirm those reports.
He said Russian security forces had tried to keep contact with Yanukovych as he moved through Ukraine and eventually "we brought him to Russian territory."
Maxim Shipenkov/AFP/Getty Images
Putin's remarks in the documentary come as the leader's whereabouts are still uncertain — leading some experts to speculate that a coup is ongoing in Russia which could place Russian nukes at the disposal of those who would seek to use them.
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