Crimea is Ukraine. Kyiv has obtained US permission to attack targets on the occupied peninsula

No Ukrainian official has publicly acknowledged this The involvement of Ukrainian forces in the Crimean campaign. But Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told VOA on Wednesday that Ukraine did not rule out striking the occupied territories with US-supplied weapons.

– If today we are talking about ending the occupation of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine where the enemy is located, then we do not have such restrictions – stressing that there will still be no attacks within the legally recognized borders of Russia (although mysterious explosions have occurred in Russian border cities) .

One administration official told us that the United States supports strikes against Crimea if Kyiv deems it necessary. – Of course, we do not choose goals and all we have done is for self-defense. This person said that any target on sovereign Ukrainian territory is by definition self-defense.

After we were asked whether the administration considers the peninsula to be a sovereign territory of Ukraine, the official answered: – Crimea is Ukraine.

“Attacking Russian forces in Crimea is no different from attacking them near Kyiv, Kherson or eastern Ukraine,” says Kurt Volker, a former US ambassador to NATO and special representative for Ukraine in the Trump administration.

The Biden administration’s position is not so much a change as an affirmation of a long-term policy. Although the administration has made clear that Ukraine should not use US-made weapons to attack Russian territory — which President Joe Biden fears could trigger World War Three — Washington does not recognize Moscow’s control of the occupied peninsula.

Subsequently The open season for Russian goals has begun in Crimea – It seems that there will be more attacks. – Mikhailo Podolak, an advisor to the President of Ukraine, told the Guardian newspaper that the world could see more explosions in Crimea in the next two or three months.