Ukrainska Pravda spoke to the key figures in the events that unfolded around Tuzla in 2003: Colonel General Mykhailo Koval and Serhii Kunitsyn, who was the head of the government in Crimea at the time. Former president Leonid Kuchma answered our questions in writing. This article reconstructing the events of the hot autumn of 2003 sheds light on questions like: What provocations did Putin carry out, how did he try to hide, and how did he grope about for red lines? How did looking through his binoculars on the island of Tuzla help Kuchma realise Ukraine was not Russia? And why did the events of 2003 almost culminate in a war?
Rustem Khalilov,
28 September 2023, 05:30
