After Kyiv announced last month that it is working to its last breath to restore Crimea The pivot between the two conflicting countries, which Russia announced its annexation in 2014, came from the Pentagon.
Four senior officials of the US Department of Defense revealed to lawmakers of the House Armed Services Committee in a classified testimony that it is unlikely that Ukrainian forces will be able to retake the important peninsula from Russian forces in the near future.
She does not have and will not enjoy!
3 people with direct knowledge of the contents of the briefing of the outcome of a meeting attended by Laura Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, and Director of Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff Douglas Sims, stated that the Pentagon does not believe that Ukraine has, or will soon have, the ability to remove Russian forces from Crimea, which Moscow has annexed since 2014, according to Politico.
While Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Sina refused to comment on the closed secret briefings, saying that there would be no talk of assumptions or expectations of possible future operations.
She stressed that Ukraine has the ability to fight and restore sovereign lands, and that its performance has been remarkable so far in repelling Russian aggression, and the continuous ability to adapt on the battlefield speaks for itself, as she put it.
The words of the Pentagon spokeswoman came in line with what the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, said in recent weeks, when he said that during this year it will be very difficult to remove Russian forces militarily from every inch of Ukraine or the regions occupied by Russia.
He added, during a meeting with the Ukrainian defense liaison team on the 20th of last month in Germany, that this does not mean that it cannot happen, but that it will be “very difficult.”
Ukraine insists
While those statements angered the Zelensky administration, as the advisor to the Ukrainian president, Andrei Yermak, in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, rejected the idea of Ukraine’s victory without restoring Crimea, adding that victory means restoring Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders, including Donbass. and Crimea.
US aid to target Crimea!
In turn, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that his country seeks to regain Crimea, which Russia announced its annexation in 2014, calling on its Western partners to provide it with more weapons.
“Our goal is to liberate all our lands,” he told an audience during Davos also via video in Ukrainian, adding that “Crimea is our land, our sea and our mountains. Give us your weapons and we will take back our land.”
It is noteworthy that Kyiv had confirmed more than once during the last period, its refusal to make any settlement or negotiation with the Kremlin, before the withdrawal of all Russian forces from Ukrainian lands, including Crimea, and “Moscow paying the price.”
While Moscow responded, saying that “the end of the war is very easy, and it may happen as soon as Kyiv implements its demands,” which is to stop the “Ukrainian provocations” and everything that would threaten Russian national security, and to stop the Ukrainian efforts to join NATO, as well as the final concession and recognition. Moscow’s sovereignty over the Crimea.