“Of course we will also liberate our Crimea,” Ukrainian President Zelenskyy promises his compatriots. Russia militarily occupied the Black Sea peninsula in 2014.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has promised his compatriots a reconquest of the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia.
“The Ukrainian flag will again fly over Yalta and Sudak, over Dzhankoy and Yevpatoria,” Zelenskyy said in his evening video message in Kyiv on Monday. “Of course we will also liberate our Crimea.”
Russia militarily occupied the Black Sea peninsula in 2014 when Ukraine was weakened after a change of power and was unable to resist. Then an internationally unrecognized referendum was held and Crimea was annexed to Russia. Zelensky has always advocated a return to the peninsula, but has seldom stated it so emphatically as a war goal.
The President called on the citizens of Ukraine to maintain contact with the Russian-occupied parts of the country, Donetsk or the Kharkiv region. These areas would also be liberated again, he announced. “Tell them that the Ukrainian army will definitely come!” In the east, in the Donbass, the army is under pressure. She urgently needs modern artillery from her foreign partners in order to be able to assert herself, said Zelenskyj.
