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The Ukrainian army continues to clear and mine the liberated part of the Kherson region. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are getting closer to the occupied Crimea. The Russian military, meanwhile, is building fortifications. How the peninsula lives now and why the locals are actively equipping shelters – watch in this report.
On November 16, late in the evening, explosions were heard in the temporarily occupied Dzhankoy. Eyewitnesses immediately began posting videos of the flashes online. And such videos are filmed from time to time throughout the territory of the annexed Crimea. Explode military warehouses, oil depots and airfields.
The so-called “authorities” do not comment on what is happening. The Russian invaders are busy restoring the Crimean bridge, which was blown up in early October this year. The Russian government expects to restore the bridge before July. However, according to the British Ministry of Defense, it takes at least a year to repair the crossing, and this is a bad signal for the Russian army.
“The attack on the Kerch Bridge disrupted Russian logistical supplies to Crimea and southern Ukraine, reducing Russia’s ability to move military equipment and troops to the area by rail and road,” the British Ministry of Defense said on Twitter.
Despite frequent explosions, martial law is not declared on the peninsula, although shelters are already being prepared.
“In Crimean schools, at the parents’ meeting, they are calling to donate money for the purchase of bio-toilets, coolers and first-aid kits for arranging bomb shelters. According to available information, in the cities of the peninsula, shelters are being set up not only in schools, but also in shopping malls, large stores and public places, ”said Alexei Tilnenko, chairman of the board of the KrymSOS human rights organization.
It will be difficult for Ukraine to liberate Crimea by military means, experts say. The same opinion is shared by the Pentagon. However, it is not ruled out that Russia may leave on its own.
“The military task of physically expelling the Russians from Ukraine is very difficult and impossible to accomplish in the next couple of weeks, unless the Russian army completely collapses. So a military victory for Ukraine, which is to drive the Russians out of its territory, including from Crimea, is unlikely in the near future. This is from a military point of view, but a political decision to leave Russia is quite possible, ”said General Mark Milley, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Army.
The annexation of Crimea, according to experts, is Putin’s only victory in the war against Ukraine. All these years, since March 2014, Crimeans have been convinced that they have returned home, and this is allegedly an achievement of the Putin regime.
In fact, political analysts say, Russia has left the peninsula isolated – deprived of money, investments and opportunities.
“All these years for Crimea, no matter what they say to Crimeans, these are years of missed chances, when they really sat in isolation without any investments, when they had this narrow window into Russia, they were fed with a spoon about Russian unification. Today we see the full extent of this “greatness” and lack of rights that people have there, ”says Yulia Tyshchenko, an expert at the Ukrainian Independent Center for Political Studies.
Ukraine is determined to return to Crimea by the end of spring. Such a forecast was announced in early October by the head of Ukrainian intelligence, Kirill Budanov. In the peace formula proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, one of the conditions is also reaching the 1991 borders, which means the return of Crimea.
