Russia warns that the Ukrainian army could attack Crimea

by time news

Russia said Thursday that there is a “risk” of kyiv carrying out attacks in Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014, after several bombings against Russian targets far from the front were recorded, which the Kremlin blamed on the Ukrainians.

In recent days, several Russian military bases, two of them located about 500 kilometers from Ukraine (and the same distance from Moscow) have been attacked by drones.

And this Thursday, the Russian fleet deployed in Sevastopol, in Crimea, shot down a drone, local authorities reported.

Those attacks, coupled with a series of withdrawals by the Russian army in Ukraine, suggest that, nine months after the offensive began, Russia is having a hard time consolidating its positions and protecting its rear away from the front lines.

In Crimea “there is a risk, as the Ukrainian side persists in its line of organizing terrorist attacks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters.

But the fact that a drone was shot down “indicates that the indicated countermeasures are being taken,” he added.

The Russian Black Sea Fleet stationed in the port of Sevastopol was affected in late October by what authorities described as a “massive” drone attack that damaged at least one ship.

And this fall, the bridge connecting the peninsula to Russia was partly destroyed by a huge explosion that Moscow blamed on Ukrainian forces.

Thus, the authorities installed by Moscow in Crimea announced the construction of fortifications and trenches, while the Ukrainian forces retook a part of the Kherson region in November, bordering the annexed peninsula.

– Arrests in Crimea –

Faced with the possibility that the front lines will not move during the winter, the Ukrainians are increasingly turning to drones to bomb Russian bases in the rear, while the Russians are bombing Ukrainian energy infrastructure, leaving the civilians without heat or electricity.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said the Ukrainian military had added “seven models of Ukrainian-made drones” in the past month, while before the Russian offensive only “one or two” had been added.

On Thursday, the Russian security services (FSB) announced the arrest of two Sevastopol residents suspected of having transmitted information about military targets to Ukraine.

In a statement, the FSB explained that one of the suspects was recruited by kyiv in 2016 and that, since the beginning of the military campaign in Ukraine, he had provided kyiv with “information on the location of facilities of the Russian Defense Ministry.”

The Ukrainian army approached Crimea thanks to a counteroffensive that allowed it to recapture the strategically important city of Kherson in the south of the country in mid-November.

In that area, where the bulk of the two sides are separated by the Dnieper River, the situation remains tense, with regular Russian shelling on the city of Kherson.

Oleksiy Kovbasiuk, a resident of the region who spoke to AFP, continues to cross the river despite the risk that this entails and the cold temperatures, to help the inhabitants trapped on the left bank, occupied by the Russians, flee.

“My ship has already had two bullet wounds,” he said.

– “Russophobia” –

On the other hand, the Kremlin accused the US magazine Time of “Russophobia” on Thursday, after it named Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky its personality of the year 2022, and paid tribute to the “Ukrainian spirit” in front of Moscow.

Moscow has suffered several setbacks since the summer and was forced to mobilize hundreds of reservists. Now, Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be preparing public opinion for a conflict that is likely to drag on.

Intervention in Ukraine is “a long process,” he admitted on Wednesday, assuring that “the appearance of new territories” that Moscow claims to have annexed represents a “significant result for Russia.”

Likewise, the leader seemed to downplay the risk of resorting to a nuclear weapon. “We have not gone crazy, we know what nuclear weapons are,” the Kremlin chief said, adding that this type of weapon would only be used in the event of “retaliation.”

US State Department spokesman Ned Price declined to respond directly to Putin, but said “any light talk about nuclear weapons is absolutely irresponsible.”

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AFP

Conocé The Trust Project

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