The government in Kiev leaves no doubt that recapturing Crimea is one of its most important war goals. This is no longer met with resistance in Washington. Statements made by a top US diplomat caused angry reactions in Moscow.
According to Moscow, the United States is inciting Ukraine to strike the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, thereby fueling the conflict. "Now the American warmongers are going even further: they are inciting the Kiev regime to further escalate by bringing the war to our territory," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, according to the Interfax news agency. The trigger was statements by top US diplomat Victoria Nuland, according to which Washington considers Russian military installations in Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, to be legitimate targets.
"No matter what the Ukrainians decide about Crimea, where they want to fight and so on - Ukraine will not be safe unless Crimea is at least demilitarized. (...) So I will not prejudice what the Ukrainians are fighting for or how they deal with Crimea, in the short term, medium term or long term," Nuland said Thursday at an online event hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank. In Crimea there is a drone base, Russian command and control posts and other important military installations. "These are legitimate targets. Ukraine is attacking them and we are supporting them in this," said career diplomat Nuland, whose rank is roughly equivalent to that of state secretary in the foreign ministry.
Crimea has been under Russian control since 2014, and numerous Russian military bases are located on the Black Sea peninsula. Under international law, however, it still belongs to Ukraine. Nuland's statements once again testified to the direct involvement of the United States in the conflict, Zakharova further criticized. According to them, Washington supplies Ukraine with weapons, provides intelligence data, trains Ukrainian soldiers and participates in the immediate planning of military operations.
US media first reported on January 18 that the US government could soon give the green light for a Ukrainian attack on Crimea. As the "New York Times" reported, citing government sources, US President Joe Biden is no longer rejecting a military operation by the Ukrainian army to liberate the Black Sea peninsula "after months of negotiations" with Kiev - even if there is a risk of escalation of the war increase again. The US government concluded that "Kiev needs the strength to attack the Russian sanctuary," the report said.
Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression on February 24, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made it clear several times that the liberation of Crimea from Russian occupation is one of Ukraine's most important war goals.
