Ukrainian authorities are planning to take Crimea from the Russian Federation by force. This was stated by the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian.
“We will do everything possible to return the region,” said the Ukrainian official.
He added that Kiev wants to win and that the return of Crimea will be considered a victory. According to him, 2023 will be decisive in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
British journalists wrote that Yermak did not specify where the Armed Forces of Ukraine could launch the next offensive. In the article, it is stated that the administration of US President Joe Biden does not support the words of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the return of Crimea.
At the same time, military analysts agree that the attack on Crimea will be a very difficult operation for the Ukrainian army, according to the Guardian.
The land won’t give an inch
A member of the Federation Council, Crimean senator Olga Kovitidi, told the “Moscow speaks” radio station that Ukraine’s peninsula plans will not come true.
“The enemy will not be able to take an inch of Crimean territory,” said the senator.
Kovitidi added that it is a “crime against humanity” to force Crimean people to live in another, unsympathetic state. “Zelensky expresses criminal intent through Yermak. He exhibits aggressive militaristic intentions against the people of Crimea. We will not give this land to anyone. We will defend the choice of Russia, the enemy will not be able to take even an inch of the territory of Crimea, historical experience proves this, ”said a member of the Federation Council.
He recalled that “there are already French, German, Italian, English cemeteries” on the territory of Sevastopol.
“We must ask the Ukrainians and Europeans: do we need another cemetery in the Crimea where their sons and children will lie?” – summed up the representative of the authorities of the peninsula.
After the loss of the Crimean War by Russia, cemeteries of foreign soldiers, especially the British, emerged in Crimea. In the 1880s, the remains of more than 130 necropolises were reburied in a large British cemetery. In 1998, a German memorial cemetery was also opened in the then Ukrainian Crimea – the remains of thousands of Wehrmacht soldiers who died during the battles of the Great Patriotic War were reburied there.
another opinion
On December 22, retired general Ben Hodges, the former commander of the US Armed Forces in Europe, said at the Atlantic Council meeting in Washington that the Ukrainian Armed Forces would seize Crimea by the end of summer 2023.
He also believes that if Ukraine has long-range ATACMS missiles at its disposal, Kiev can destroy all Russian headquarters in Crimea.
“Crimea has already been recaptured,” Zelensky had previously said in the minds of Ukrainians. Politico reported that during his visit to the United States, the Ukrainian president hopes to reach an agreement with the White House on the supply of long-range ATACMS missiles.
However, the United States is not yet ready to supply such weapons to Ukraine, fearing retaliation by Moscow.
Crimea is difficult
On November 16, the Chief of Staff of the US Armed Forces (JSC), General Mark Milley, said that the Ukrainian authorities should consider negotiations with Russia.
“The military task of physically expelling the Russians from Ukraine is very difficult. And this will not happen in the next few weeks, unless the Russian army completely collapses, which is very unlikely, ”said he.
According to the American general, “the possibility of a military victory for Ukraine, if we mean the expulsion of the Russians from all Ukraine, including Ukraine <…> Crimea is militarily weak in the near future.”
At the same time, Milley expressed the view that a political solution could be found that would force Moscow to withdraw its forces. He also stressed that the negotiations should be conducted from a strong position.
“You have to bargain when you are strong and your opponent is weak. Maybe it will be a political decision. I’m just saying that there is such an opportunity,” added the chairman of the committee.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin noted that he sees no hope for an end to hostilities in Ukraine in the near future.
Aksenov’s words
On December 28, the head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, urged the Ukrainian authorities to consider not the return of the peninsula, but the path taken by modern Ukraine.
“Someone Podolyak (advisor of the head of the office of the President of Ukraine) was going to broadcast live from the Yalta embankment in six months. A certain Yermak (head of the office of the Ukrainian leader) regularly declares his desire to return Crimea to Ukraine. Zelensky (Ukrainian President) plans to come to Crimea and see the sea,” he said.
He recalled that in 2014, the then Ukrainian Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey promised to hold a parade of Ukrainian troops in Sevastopol.
So where is Heletey now? And much more importantly, where will Ukraine be under the leadership of such characters? It seems that everyone already understands where he is, ”says Aksenov in his post.