The newly appointed first deputy head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group, former Prime Minister of Ukraine Vitold Fokin, previously tried to justify the occupation of Crimea. According to him, “if Russia had not seized Crimea then, the Americans would have come here”. He stated this in an interview with Dmitry Gordon on the 112 Ukraine TV channel in 2017.
"There is another version, and I am inclined to think that it is serious. Why did the American aircraft carriers enter the Mediterranean Sea, passed the Dardanelles, the Bosphorus? There is a version that if Russia had not seized Crimea then, it is quite possible that it would have lost Crimea forever , as the Americans would have come here. And Russia must be understood: it has a fleet there, "- Fokin said.