Aleksey Reznikov has additionally predicted in a CNN interview that Kiev’s bid to hitch NATO might be accepted subsequent yr
Ukrainian Protection Minister Aleksey Reznikov has pledged to proceed attacking Russian targets in Crimea, together with the Crimean Bridge, saying the strikes will scale back Moscow’s capability to combat towards Kiev’s forces.
Reznikov made his feedback in a CNN interview aired on Monday, arguing that attacking the bridge and different Crimean targets would assist save Ukrainian lives. “It’s regular techniques to wreck the logistic strains of your enemy to cease the choices to get extra ammunition, to get extra gas, to get extra meals, etcetera,” he stated. “That’s why we’ll use these techniques towards them.”
Ukrainian operatives have repeatedly focused Russia’s Crimean Bridge, which connects Crimea to the Taman Peninsula in Krasnodar Area. The newest assault, carried out final week by two seaborne drones, killed a husband and spouse from Belgorod Area and injured their 14-year-old daughter. Russian President Vladimir Putin decried the incident as “yet one more terrorist assault by the Kiev regime.”
Russian forces responded by launching airstrikes towards navy targets in Odessa, together with the town’s Black Sea port. Apparently ignoring the truth that the one casualties of Ukraine’s Kerch Strait assault had been civilians, Reznikov stated the Odessa strikes proved that Russia was a “terrorist state.” He added, “They tried to elucidate that it’s a response for some explosions of their territories, however they’re preventing with civilians. That’s why I name them looters, rapists and murderers.”
Reznikov additionally claimed that Ukraine may ramp up assaults towards Russian naval forces within the Black Sea. He blamed inadequate air defenses and deadly Russian minefields for the struggles of Ukrainian forces of their present counteroffensive, which started final month however has did not breach Moscow’s defensive strains.
However, Reznikov predicted that Ukraine will defeat Russian forces by subsequent summer season, opening the door for Kiev to be accepted as a brand new NATO member in July 2024. “After the victory, after then, it will likely be within the curiosity of NATO as a result of we grew to become an actual japanese defend of NATO or japanese defend of Europe,” he stated.
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