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The Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea in 2020. In the background is the Moskva warship, which sank earlier this year. Ukraine is preparing to launch an offensive on the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula and the Russian Black Sea Fleet stationed there, according to Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Volodymyr Havrylov.
“We are receiving anti-ship capabilities and sooner or later we will target the fleet,” Havrylov said in an interview with
The Times newspaper in London. “Russia will have to leave Crimea if they wish to exist as a country.”
Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24. Moscow previously invaded Ukraine in 2014 and seized the Crimea region.
Crimea is of particular strategic importance to Russia as it includes the headquarters of its Black Sea fleet at Sevastopol. Another prized target for Ukraine would be the
18km (11-mile) bridge that links the Black Sea peninsula with mainland Russia.
Havrylov said that the
recapture of the Snake Island, occupied by Moscow early in the invasion, was a first step. “We are ready to target them all over the Black Sea if we have that capability,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reacted by saying that Havrylov’s remarks confirmed the necessity of the “special military operation”, as the war is officially called in Russia and which aims, among other things, to “denazify” and “demilitarise” Ukraine.
“In our military calculations, in our plans, if everything will go as we think, we may, we will liberate our territories before the end of this year,” ambassador Sergiy Korsunsky said in a recent interview with Kyodo News.
“It may not be the end of the war, but we hope to push the Russian army back to Russia before the end of the year,” Korsunsky said.
Suggesting that more sophisticated arms like High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, known as HIMARS, and new advanced air defence systems provided by the United States and European nations will be deployed, he said, “We are now trying to make proper preparations for a counter-offence”.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu this week ordered generals to prioritise destroying Ukraine’s long-range missile and artillery weapons after Western-supplied weapons were used to strike Russian supply lines.