Preventing the existence of enclaves on the country’s territory is the basic objective of the Ukrainian army, said Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The freeing of all the territories is Ukraine’s priority and it also goes to the freeing of the Crimean peninsula from Russian domination. The decisive battles are those given in Donetsk and Luhansk as the freeing of Donbas region will simplify the freeing of Crimea, IPN reports.
The presidential adviser said the fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk is the decisive phase of the war. Besides the Russian army, there are local armies created by pro-Russian separatists in Donbas.
‘The heaviest battles are now fought in Donetsk and Luhansk and there are yet segments of the Russian army there. During eight years, Donetsk region has been under the management of a criminal group that formed own armies and they now defend their right over a gray zone. They are those who put up the harshest opposition. If they lose control over Donetsk and Luhansk, they will lose control over a gray zone where they smuggled and committed other illegalities. For us, it is very clear that when the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk fall, the protection of the Crimean peninsula will no longer be possible,” Mykhailo Podolyak stated in an interview for the public TV channel Moldova 1.
The Ukrainian official expressed his conviction that the gaining of control over Donetsk and Luhansk by the Ukrainian army will lead to a final phase of the war as Russia will lose the possibility of supplying Crimea. Peace negotiations that would imply the existence of a separatist enclave on the territory of Ukraine are yet excluded.
“If Donetsk and Luhansk fall, the Crimean Bridge will remain the only supply instrument and this will fall prey to our reactive artillery. Then, the morale of the Russian army and society will be definitely at ground level and internal conflicts will start in Russia when Donetsk and Luhansk fall as they will realize that they can no longer keep Crimea. This is the evident logic of the war. President Zelensky set the freeing of all the territories as the basic objective of our army so that we do not have enclaves on Ukraine’s territory and we refer also to Crimea here,” stated Mykhailo Podolyak.
From 24 February 2022 to 2 January 2023, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recorded 17,994 civilian casualties in Ukraine: 6,919 killed and 11,075 injured. According to UN data, 93% of those affected are victims of shelling, while the rest are deaths and traumas caused by mines and other types of explosives.
