Ukraine 'starting to liberate Crimea' as Black Sea successes offset slow progress on land

The Washington Examiner ^ | October 4, 2023 | Joel Gehrke

[Timber Rattler]

Ukrainian forces raided Crimea and “inflicted fire on the Moscow occupiers,” according to Ukrainian officials, in a campaign to build military pressure on Russia’s forces in the vital occupied peninsula.

"There was a battle with the Russian occupiers; many were killed and wounded among the invaders' personnel,” Ukrainian Defense Intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told a Ukrainian outlet. “Unfortunately, there are losses among Ukrainian defenders too, though these are still not as many as among the Russians.”

Yusov offered that statement after his colleagues released a video that purports to show Ukrainian special forces members riding jet skis to the Crimean coastline. That dovetailed with public indications that Russian naval leaders have been forced to withdraw ships from Sevastopol, the historic home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and the locus of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initial aggression against Ukraine in 2014.

“It's a very good sign [that] we are starting to liberate Crimea,” Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Merezhko told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. “Crimea used to be a symbol of Russian success. And when we are putting this into question, when we are liberating it, it sends a very strong signal that Putin didn't deliver, that he totally failed in his strategy and his policy.”

[Timber Rattler]

With the Muscovite Black Sea Fleet running for safety, the Kerch bridge damaged and vulnerable, and the tempo Ukrainian missile attacks and amphibious raids increasing, the Muscovites are losing their grip on Crimea.

[Cronos]

If Putin hadn’t invaded in Feb 2022 but just threatened, then he would have been able to get the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s republic absorbed by Muscowy.

The west would have done nothing.

NATO would have been further weakened if not disbanded.

Instead, he invaded.

And the net result was that now Crimea is in play/contention

[ConservativeInPA]

To hell with Ukraine. Not another dime to these corrupt, grifting Nazis. There are still no American interests in Ukraine. Anyone supporting Ukraine is a virtual signaling useful idiot of the MIC and doesn’t give a damn about America. Eff Zeepers.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Crimea Success!

The theme of the new Fall Ukrainian fund raiser!

[NorseViking]

Is there anyone who takes this bullcrap seriously at this point?

[aMorePerfectUnion]

[Levy78]

Yes. FR is full of such rubes.

[Travis McGee]

They are reduced to celebrating pin-prick suicide raids by kamikaze commandos on jet skis.

Pitiful.

[Travis McGee]

See 8.

[Alter Kaker]

Is there anyone who takes this bullcrap seriously at this point?

Yeah the Russians, which is why they've withdrawn most of their fleet from Crimea.

[amnestynone]

Actually, we do car about Ukrainian “nazis”. It is better to help them fight Russia then to see us fight Russia. If you believe this Ukrainians are Nazis then you must believe in Russia and Putin and I for one have no credibility in anyone who would believe Russia or anything they say. We have a lot of interest in helping Ukraine an any idiot who says we don't is full of it.

[dforest]

They haven’t liberated squat.

[dforest]

What interest do we have in Ukraine? What can Ukraine do for the average American?

[ConservativeInPA]

There is no need for us to fight Russia. You are falling for the same idiotic argument used since the Korean War: “We need to fight them there so we don’t have to fight them there.” Exactly how well has that worked out? We lose every frickin’ war with tens of thousands of dead and hundreds of thousands permanently disabled Americans. Our so-called enemies succeed and survive while never posing a direct threat to America - not before any war, during any war or after any war.

People like you make me sick. You don’t have the intellect to critically think or learn from past failures. Your irrational fears driven my government propaganda makes you stupid. You are a Military Industrial Complex useful idiot. Grow a set, get over your irrational fears and start thinking.

[amnestynone]

We do not lose wars that we actually fight. Go read your history. You obviously do not know what you are talking about.

[Vermont Lt]

They can kill Russians in their country.

I am down for that.

[Trumpisourlastchance]

We could have built 4 borders walls around the country, instead, we poured the money down the black hole of “Ukraine”.

[ConservativeInPA]

What wars have we won since WWII?

[GBA]

My respect for Ukrainians and their tenacity and courage increases month by month, from that first act of defiance on Snake Island to these raids now and beyond.

Their defense of home, family and freedom is very commendable. I wish we, the people, were still like that, but we’re not.

And I feel very sad for and sorry for the poor Russians who have to fight and die for Putin. And for what? All that had been gained after the fall of the Soviet Union has been lost.

May God have Mercy on them and us all.

[Kazan]

So, let's get this right -- Ukraine has been on a counteroffensive for four months but still lost ground for the year but it is "starting to liberate" Crimea?

Only imbecile would believe that.

And, the people of Crimea are overwhelming ethnically Russian, never wanted to part of Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union and would fight to their deaths to avoid being part of Ukraine again. So, any claims of liberation are lies only someone completely historical illiterate of the region would try to pass off as credible.