JAKARTA - President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to liberate Crimea, a Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia eighteen years ago, defending his counterattack tactics which drew criticism on Wednesday.
Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, a move never recognized by the majority of countries in the world, and carried out a full-scale invasion of southern and eastern Ukraine in February 2022.
"Crimea will be liberated from occupation like other regions of Ukraine which are unfortunately still under the occupiers," President Zelensky said in a speech at an international conference on Crimea in Kyiv.
Ukrainian forces are known to have started a counteroffensive to retake Russian-occupied territory in early June. However, progress was slow due to the challenge of extensive minefields and trenches, especially in the southeast, and the lack of adequate air support.
President Zelensky said his troops were making progress in the counteroffensive, but did not set a target date for retaking Crimea or other Russian-occupied territory.
Citing other US and Western officials, The New York Times on Wednesday said Ukraine was struggling to break through Russia's heavily fortified lines in the south, having concentrated too many of its troops in the wrong areas, such as in the east.
Asked about Ukraine's military moves at a news conference after his speech, President Zelensky outlined the risks of moving troops from the eastern front, where, he said, Russia has about 200,000 troops.
"The suggestion is this. Let's take our troops, the armed forces from there, and move them somewhere," he said, then proceeded to list the cities that were becoming more vulnerable to a Moscow attack.
"I think after that the following things will happen. A few days - Sloviansk, Kramatorsk; then they will go to Pavlohrad (...) I believe that is the hope they have. (Then) Kharkiv," he explained.
"We will not hand over Kharkiv, Donbas, Pavlohrad, or Dnipro," said President Zelensky.
So far, Russia has shown no sign of abandoning Crimea, which it has used as a base from which to launch missile attacks on targets in Ukraine.
Moscow argues that the referendum held after Russian troops seized the peninsula showed Crimeans really wanted to become part of Russia, even though the referendum was not recognized by most countries in the world.
SEE ALSO:
President Zelensky said that once Crimea is back under Ukrainian control, Crimea will become part of the Ukrainian economy and therefore part of the global economy.
"Today we took the first economic step. We signed the first document with companies that are ready to enter Crimea after Ukraine," he said, without elaborating.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
