OREANDA-NEWS. The National Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine has established the reasons and conditions that contributed to the loss of Crimea and the collapse of the country’s Armed Forces. This was reported on September 16 on the agency’s website.

The statement says that actions to undermine the combat capability of the Ukrainian army began in 2012 and continued until February 2014. According to the Bureau, the first reason is “criminal reduction” of the army: the military personnel decreased from 240 thousand to 162 thousand people.

The destruction of air defense systems in Crimea was named as another reason. These systems were transferred to the command of the Crimean Naval Forces, which after that “went over to the side of the enemy.”

One more reason for the loss of the peninsula by Kiev was called a “failure to take measures to respond to external threats.”