Ukrainian Commander Blabs About Kiev’s Plans to Try to Seize Crimea in 2023

 / Go to the mediabankReservists called up under Russia’s partial mobilization in September, on a training ground in Sevastopol, Crimea. September 30, 2022. / Go to the mediabankIn a snap referendum held in the spring of 2014, shortly after a US-backed coup in Kiev, Crimeans voted overwhelmingly for their peninsula’s return to Russia, with the vote taking place just over 60 years after the region’s 1954 transfer from the Russian to the Ukrainian Soviet republic by Nikita Khrushchev.A commander claiming to be “close to the planning process” of Ukrainian military operations has told UK media that Kiev has plans to attack Crimea in 2023.“If we telegraphed our plans on social media and on TV, we’d achieve nothing,” Lieut. Gen (ret) Mikhail Zabrodsky, the Ukrainian Airmobile Forces commander tasked with trying to snuff out pro-independence militias in Donbass in 2014, said.The officer, who had a criminal case opened against him in 2017 by Russia’s Investigative Committee for suspected war crimes in Donbass, insisted that a Ukrainian operation to seize Crimea was “not only possible,” but “being prepared” for next year.Authorities in Crimea have stepped up preparations to defend the peninsula in the event of aggression following repeated attacks on the region’s infrastructure, including the Crimean Bridge, Sevastopol port, and local railway infrastructure. A heightened state of emergency readiness was introduced in Crimea in October, after martial law was established in the neighboring Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, as well as Donbass.Russia’s Special Operation in UkraineBritish Spies Training Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Crimea, Leaks Show4 November, 15:05 GMTThe report comes weeks after revelations in leaked documents that British spies have been training an army of Ukrainian insurgents in the Black Sea port of Odessa to wage “guerrilla warfare” against Russian military and civilian targets in Crimea.Crimea rejoined Russia in March 2014 amid unrest in Ukraine following the February 2014 coup in Kiev, which saw the overthrow of the country’s democratically elected government and its replacement with forces seeking to drag Ukraine into NATO and the European Union. In an emergency snap referendum organized by authorities on the peninsula, over 96 percent of residents voted to join Russia, with a turnout of 83 percent.

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