When justifying the seizure of Crimea, the Russian president pretended to be a victim of the Western policy and manipulatively argued that the only way to confront NATO’s illusory penetration into the Ukrainian peninsula was to “facilitate” its “reunification” with Russia. The obsession to tear Crimea away from Ukraine appeared to be one of the stark examples of an expressly frustrated policy by Vladimir Putin, who enjoyed his aggressive “victory” by displaying at the same time his passion for artificially constructed self-victimisation. The article argues that an ongoing hybresia (hybrid aggression) against Ukraine is irrational and destructive for both Ukraine and Russia but vitally needed for Putin’s regime survival.