Oleksiy Nikiforov, one of the few Crimean troops who did not betray his oath of allegiance, went on a TV panel show to speak on how the then defense minister concealed the fact that the Crimean military had defected to the enemy in the first days of Crimea seizure.
"Two days passed and he was claiming on TV that he had everything under control, although at that time the Crimean military had already defected to the enemy and flew Russian flags over their bases," Nikiforov said at the Pravo na Vladu TV show.
Read alsoEx-Def. Minister: Ukraine army wasn't ready to shoot at Russians at start of warAccording to him, no one attacked arms depots in the first days of the Crimea invasion. Instead, Russians approached bases where they met no resistance. "Only three military units were under the Ukrainian flag," the military said.
Nikiforov, who in January was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, noted that 64 of his troops out of a 300-strong unit had withdrawn from Crimea to mainland Ukraine along with him. After that, two servicemen returned to Crimea, while those who remained were deployed in the ATO zone.
