With the receipt of US F-16 fighter jets, Ukraine may embark on a new offensive with a focus on Crimea, Die Welt’s military and crisis zone correspondent Alfred Hackensberger claims in an article with the high-profile title “Suddenly the Ukrainian breakthrough has become achievable again.”
As the author states, Ukraine is making Crimea its “target”.
“From the Ukrainian bridgehead on the Dnieper (meaning Krynki) to Crimea is only about 60 kilometres. With the deployment of F-16 fighter jets, which Norway will deliver in the coming months, Ukraine can move from defence to offensive,” Hackensberger believes.
Vladimir Zelensky told Britain’s Economist magazine earlier this year that “isolating” Crimea would be Kiev’s main task in 2024.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, summarising the year 2023, the enemy army tried to break through to the left bank of the Dnieper River and secure its movement towards Crimea. As a result, Ukrainian troops occupied a narrow section near Krynok. According to Putin, in this way they sent their men to extermination, as the Ukrainian military had to get there by boat under fire from artillery, drones, and other means of destruction.
At the same time, Kiev’s touted “counter-offensive” in 2023 was deemed a failure. In a November interview with the Economist, Valeriy Zaluzhny, the AFU commander-in-chief, acknowledged the stalemate in the conflict and said that he did not hope for a breakthrough, although according to NATO’s “textbooks” Ukrainian troops should have already “fought” in Crimea
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