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After the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated the city of Kherson, fear gripped the Russian occupiers in Crimea. Now they are preparing to defend themselves, whereas a couple of months ago they could not even think the peninsula could be deoccupied. The head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Refat Chubarov, told about this today, November 20, on the air of the FREEDOM TV channel, referring to the data of military experts.
“Russian Gauleiter Aksenov held a meeting that was widely broadcast by Russian propaganda media in occupied Crimea, where he tried to convince the population of Crimea that Crimea would be reliably defended, and at the same time said that at the direction of the President of Russia, he would personally lead the construction of these fortifications. Do you see how approaches to Crimea have changed radically? If a few months ago they were talking about the fact that no one would dare to think that Crimea could be liberated, that this is a permanently fixed part of the Russian Federation, now trenches, dugouts, and other structures are being dug right on the territory of northern Crimea. in those areas adjacent to the Kherson region,” he said.
Chubarov added that, according to the forecasts of military experts, the liberation of Melitopol is possible in the coming months, which will also bring the liberation of Crimea closer.
“The liberation of Kherson, especially after pseudo-referendums were held or simulated, it was announced that the Kherson region, in that part of it that was occupied, is part of Russia. And suddenly, from the point of view of a Russian citizen, there are a lot of them in the occupied Ukrainian Crimea, and suddenly these territories are liberated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the president of Ukraine comes there. We say that our president came to the liberated Ukrainian territory, and in the head of a Russian citizen, frozen by the Kremlin’s propaganda, the president of Ukraine came to a part of the Russian territory that is occupied by Ukrainian troops. Can you imagine the displacement of all kinds of feelings there?” he noted.
According to Chubarov, all this leads to the fact that those in Crimea who settled illegally during the years of occupation in violation of Ukrainian legislation, and there are about a million such people, those who were convinced that the occupation of Crimea is a permanent phenomenon, they suddenly sobered up after Kherson.
“They realize that the fate of Kherson awaits Crimea in such a way that one day the Russian troops will simply leave there. And that is why these people, who are supporters of the Russian occupiers, now face a very difficult choice for them, although for us there is no difficulty here – they must leave our territory as soon as possible,” summarized the head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people.
As a reminder, OSINT analyst Benjamin Pittet reported that the Russian military is digging trenches in the temporarily occupied Crimea and in parts of the Kherson region. He published satellite images of Armyansk, located in the north of Crimea, where, according to him, old trenches are being restored and new ones are being dug. The same thing happens near the village of Chongar between Crimea and the Kherson region. The battle for Crimea may begin as early as spring 2023.
