Did not fall, but squeezed

On February 22, 2014, on the Victory Day of the Euromaidan, when President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych fled from Kyiv, the helicopter of Vladimir Putin nearly got into a disaster in Sochi. According to Ukrinform, this was stated by the ex-deputy of the State Duma Ilya Ponomarev, speaking in the Obolonsky district court of Kiev, where the case of the state treason of Yanukovych is in absentia. A video of the testimony of Ponomarev, who lives in Ukraine in exile, published "112 - Ukraine."

According to Ponomarev, a certain FSO officer told him about the incident in March 2014. The helicopter of Putin made a rigid landing, and the head of state "regarded this as an attempt to attempt with the participation of foreign special services." Since Yanukovych fled on the same day, Putin had such a mood that there was a conspiracy, "continued Ponomarev.

On the night of February 23, then the ex-deputy said, Putin held a meeting with four close associates. Ponomarev did not specify their names; At the same time, he noted that he received information about the meeting from one of its participants. Then, according to Ponomarev, Putin raised the question of the annexation of Crimea.

“My interlocutor retold to me that the majority at this meeting was against the annexation of Crimea directly ...” Ponomarev noted. “Nevertheless, Putin said that these issues need to be resolved, they say, this is your work, how to solve them, and insisted on the direct annexation of the peninsula. Accordingly, the procedure was launched on February 23.”

Meanwhile, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov in response to a request from RBC said that there was no incident with Putin’s helicopter on February 22, 2014.

Now in official Ukrainian documents as the date of the beginning of Russia's aggression against Ukraine was adopted on February 20, 2014, that is, time before the victory of Euromaidan. It is this date that is indicated on the commemorative medal released by Russia in honor of the annexation of Crimea, as the day of the seizure of the peninsula.