"KOSOVO II" - Crimean Tatar Leader Calls For UN Peacekeeping Troops.

Flashback March 14

"KOSOVO II" - Crimean Tatar Leader Calls For UN Peacekeeping Troops.(rferl).

The veteran leader of Crimean Tatars called on the UN Security Council to send peacekeeping forces to Crimea.

Mustafa Dzhemilev told VOA correspondents after an informal Security Council meeting on Crimea on March 31 that the insufficient pressure on Moscow over the annexation of Crimea might lead to bloodshed on the peninsula.

"We have serious fears about what can happen there, and that's why I asked for UN peacekeeping forces. But since this is something that's decided by the UN Security Council, where Russia has the right to veto, this is quite unlikely," Dzhemilev said.

"The second option was for sending NATO troops, as was done in Kosovo. But the problem with that is that NATO only comes once a sea of blood is shed."

According to Dzhemilev, the sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and the European Union are not sufficient to make Russia leave Crimea.

"My fears are these: first, we think that the sanctions taken now against the aggressor are kind of like a tiny pinprick in an elephant's skin. If this is the case, it's unlikely that Russia will leave the occupied territory," he said.

"And if such an approach prevails, then Ukrainians rightfully will consider themselves deceived, and there is already this opinion: 'We were deceived, so we should return to our nuclear status.'"