Defense Ministry predicts Ukrainian forces be back in Crimea by end of December

Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Volodymyr Havrylov expressed such an opinion in an interview with Sky News.

“Ukrainian forces could be back in Crimea by the end of December and the entire war with Russia will be over by the spring,” Havrylov said.

He stressed the Ukraine would never stop fighting until victory and had even factored in the potential of a Russian nuclear strike. But, according to him, the probability of an atomic attack by Russia is low, as such a step “would be drama for everybody”.

"For everybody it will be just - God knows what scenario - but it [a tactical nuclear strike] is not a threat which will stop us from... continuing our war,” the deputy minister said.

In terms of the prospect for peace talks with the Kremlin, Havrylov said “they would only happen once Russian troops are ready to leave every inch of Ukraine,” including the Crimean Peninsula and a part of the territories in eastern Ukraine that have been held by Russian-backed separatists for the past eight years.

"There is a decision inside the society in Ukraine that we are going up to the end," Havrylov said.

"People paid a lot of blood, a lot of efforts to what we have already achieved and everybody knows that any delay or frozen conflict is only the continuation of this war against the existence of Ukraine as a nation,” he noted.

As Ukrinform reported, President Volodymyr Zelensky in a virtual speech to G20 leaders on November 15 outlined a ten-point peace plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Photo: AA

iy