{"id":26372,"date":"2022-08-10T08:04:01","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T08:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=26372"},"modified":"2022-08-10T08:04:03","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T08:04:03","slug":"ukraine-war-must-end-with-liberation-of-crimea-zelensky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=26372","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war must end with liberation of Crimea \u2013 Zelensky"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BBC News: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The war in Ukraine began with Crimea and must end with its liberation, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine’s president was speaking after a string of explosions hit a Russian airbase there, killing one person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Zelensky did not mention Tuesday’s blasts but said: “Crimea is Ukrainian and we will never give it up.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia’s defence ministry said ammunition detonated at the base. Meanwhile, Ukraine denied any responsibility for the explosions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a separate development, Ukrainian officials say 13 people were killed in overnight Russian strikes in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, and another one in the Zaporizhzhia region in the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crimea is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine – but the Black Sea peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014 after a referendum which the global community sees as illegitimate. Many Ukrainians see this as the start of their war with Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, a series of explosions rocked the Saky military base near Novofedorivka,<\/a> in the west of Crimea – which is near seaside resorts popular with Russian tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Novofedorivka and Saky are about 50km (30 miles) north of the port of Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which has been leading a blockade of the Ukrainian coastline. The airbase had been used by Russia to launch attacks on targets deep inside Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Footage on social media showed beachgoers running as the explosions hit, with witnesses saying they had heard at least 12 blasts. Crimea’s Russian-appointed health department said one civilian had been killed and another eight injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/emp.bbc.com\/emp\/SMPj\/2.45.0\/iframe.htmlMedia caption,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch: Crimea beachgoers run after airfield explosion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia’s defence ministry insisted the blasts were down to ammunition that had exploded in a store and that there was no “fire impact” from outside – although this has not been independently verified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak denied that Ukraine was behind the blasts, telling the Dozhd online television channel: “Of course not. What do we have to do with this?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any attack on Crimea by Ukraine would be considered deeply serious by Moscow. Russia sounded a warning last month when ex-President Dmitry Medvedev threatened last month that “Judgement Day will instantly await” if Ukraine targeted Crimea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Zelensky did not refer to the blasts in his speech late on Tuesday, but spoke at length about the peninsula, saying: “We will not forget that the Russian war against Ukraine began with the occupation of Crimea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This Russian war…began with Crimea and must end with Crimea – with its liberation,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Zelensky’s latest remarks suggest he believes that Ukraine must retake the peninsula before the war can end – but in the past he has said different things on the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He previously indicated Ukraine could accept peace<\/a> if Russia returned to their positions before 24 February, meaning retaking Crimea could be a subject of further negotiations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC News: The war in Ukraine began with Crimea and must end with its liberation, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. Ukraine’s president was speaking after a string of explosions hit a Russian airbase there, killing one person. Mr Zelensky did not mention Tuesday’s blasts but said: “Crimea is Ukrainian and we will never give it up.” Russia’s defence ministry said ammunition detonated at the base. Meanwhile, Ukraine denied any responsibility for the explosions. In a separate development, Ukrainian officials say 13 people were killed in overnight Russian strikes in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, and another one in the Zaporizhzhia region… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26372"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26374,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26372\/revisions\/26374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}