00:00Crimea may fall back to its original owners in a matter of weeks. Ladies and gentlemen,
00:06who often follow the international news program of YouTube Info 4, the beloved war of occupation
00:12in Ukraine, historians cannot abandon their work. Even though it has lasted more than four years,
00:19they still record it every day as the biggest war after the First and Second World Wars.
00:25This is a war in which a superpower is seen to be running out of resources.
00:30If Russia runs out of resources, it means that President Putin, who is the instigator of the
00:35war, is running out of strategies to expand the conflict. And this is an opportunity for Ukraine
00:41to expand a new battleground into the territory that Russia took in 2014, namely Crimea and the
00:48Black Sea region. A history of betrayal. How Crimea was lost. It has been more than 12 years since the
00:56Crimean Peninsula fell into the hands of the Russian superpower, a neighbor of Ukraine.
01:01The annexation was achieved by then-President Viktor Yanukovych. He ceded his territory to the invaders
01:08without going through the Ukrainian People's Assembly, signing away Crimea in February 2014.
01:14This man was overthrown by the people of Ukraine in a revolt supported by the Ukrainian army.
01:20It was a popular coup. Yanukovych and his family fled to Moscow and were executed, overthrown by the
01:27Russian presidential guard. Yanukovych was born in the Donbass region, which is now in the midst of a
01:33war of aggression against Russia. He sold his country for his own freedom. In 2024, when Russia had a strong
01:41advantage in the battle, this man was nominated by the Kremlin for the presidency of Ukraine,
01:45and he accepted with a smile. Putin and Yanukovych met again on the territory of Belarus a few years
01:53ago. The president of Belarus, Putin's friend, initiated the appointment of Yanukovych as president
01:59of Ukraine, if Ukraine fell completely into Russian hands. But we do not blame the Crimean Tatars for our
02:06comments. Now we return to the issue of sovereignty, which Yanukovych did not spare the pain for the
02:13Ukrainian people to this day. Crimea, legally and historically Ukrainian. Crimea is on the map of
02:21Ukraine's borders, through the division of the common border between the Russian Federation and
02:25Ukraine in 1991. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Crimea was recognized as part of Ukraine. This is why
02:33Crimea is considered the territory of the Ukrainian people, because the indigenous people of Ukraine are
02:39the owners of their homeland. In this situation, Crimea was recognized as Ukrainian territory by the
02:46former president of the Russian Federation in 1991. The two leaders signed an agreement on the
02:51reestablishment of the border, which was recognized by the United Nations. The current map of Ukraine is
02:57preserved in the United Nations. All countries in the world, especially the Soviet Union and the United
03:03States, have never recognized Russia's sovereignty over Crimea. In 2014, Yanukovych, who signed the
03:11treaty for Russia at that time, caused great criticism from European countries and led to
03:16sanctions against Russia and the current regime. Unfortunately, the UN Security Council has not
03:22taken any measures to bring Crimea back to Ukraine, because Russia, as a permanent member, has the veto
03:28power to block decisions of this world body. The current offensive, Ukraine on the move. Now,
03:36observers have seen that in the last two weeks, the momentum of the Ukrainian army's offensive has
03:41accelerated and even broken through the Russian command post on the Crimean border. In the military
03:47operation of the Ukrainian army, the goal is to retake its former territory. The Ukrainian army has been
03:54observed moving to destroy several bridges connecting southern Ukraine to Crimea. Four major military
04:00operations underway. One, breaking through the Crimean border. Ukraine has cut off the bridge on the
04:07Crimean border with southern Ukraine in the Sevastopol and Kherson regions. The Ukrainian army has captured a
04:14section of the road connecting the Crimean border with Sevastopol, the most important industrial city of the
04:19Crimean Peninsula. Two, destroying key bridges. Ukrainian troops are attacking two other important bridges on
04:28the Dnipro River on the southern border of Ukraine's Crimea. Both bridges have reportedly fallen into the
04:34hands of the Ukrainian army, with more than 60 Russian military vehicles captured. Three, blocking the
04:42Donbass supply route. The road connecting the Donbass region to Crimea has been blocked by the Ukrainian army,
04:49which has now seized a major highway leading to the Kerch Strait. War strategists believe Ukraine is
04:55planning to seize the road from Donbass to the Russian mainland in the Krasnodar territory.
05:01Four, the Kerch Strait under fire. Now, according to reports, the Kerch Strait area is under missile and
05:08artillery fire from Ukrainian troops. If the Donbass region is captured by Ukraine, it would be tantamount to the
05:15complete collapse of Russian control, especially as the Ukrainian coast is now also in the hands of
05:21Ukrainian troops. Challenges remain. Mines and resistance. However, the situation is complicated
05:28by the fact that the coastal area and the land border of the peninsula are full of mines planted by
05:34Russia.
05:35The Russian army's advance has been blocked because the mines are deeply buried in the ground,
05:40obstructing a road inside the Crimean peninsula connecting to the Zaporizhia region. Separately,
05:47the Ukrainian air force is carrying out airstrikes on dozens of Russian military strategic positions
05:52per day, attacking Russian air defense systems, naval and air force installations, and storage
05:58facilities for Russian-made weapons on the territory of the Crimean peninsula on the territory of the
06:03Crimean peninsula. General Hodges' strategy, isolate, then liberate. Retired U.S. Army General Ben Hodges,
06:11the former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe, is still advising Ukraine to launch ground forces into
06:17Crimea along the land border connecting southern Nelitopol to the peninsula, breaking through the
06:22defenses and heading toward the city of Sevastopol. There is kind of the first phase or the first step to
06:29the liberation of Crimea, to isolate it, to cut that road that goes to John Coy, to destroy the bridge.
06:36And then number two, make it untenable, unusable for the Russians, Hodges said. Ukraine now has the
06:44capability to hit every square meter of Crimea with precision strikes that can reach everywhere. There is
06:51no mystery about where the Russians are, where the airfields are, where the Navy is, logistics. It is all
06:57there. So you just keep pounding that so that the Russians realize they cannot stay there. There is no
07:03use for the Russians in Crimea. He noted that Ukraine now has the capability to strike every
07:09square meter of Crimea with precision weapons, destroying airfields, the remnants of the Russian fleet,
07:15and logistics infrastructure. The fuel crisis, Crimea on the brink. The peninsula has experienced
07:23periodic fuel shortages due to previous Ukrainian attacks, but this crisis is the worst since its
07:29annexation in 2014. In late May, authorities restricted gasoline sales to 20 liters, 5.3 gallons,
07:37per week per vehicle owner using prepaid vouchers. These vouchers sold out immediately after being
07:44released, and drivers lined up for hours to refuel. Last year, Crimea attracted nearly 7 million tourists.
07:52Now, the business newspaper Commersant reports that almost 80 percent of hotel bookings were
07:58canceled in late May and early June. Some hotels are giving away gasoline as a gift to new bookings,
08:05and these offers are quickly snapped up. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged the fuel
08:11shortage in Crimea and promised that measures are being taken to address the problem.
08:16The bridge to nowhere. Kerch under threat. Speaking about the Kerch Bridge, General Hodges noted that
08:24it had already been damaged and weakened. He stressed that the bridge carries enormous psychological
08:29significance, and as long as it stands, it will remain an obstacle to Ukraine's ability to access the Sea of
08:35Izolv. I would absolutely trust the Ukrainian general staff to have a solution for the when and the how,
08:42he said. The bridge was attacked with a truck bomb in October 2022, killing five people, destroying two
08:48sections, and requiring months of repairs. Numerous other attacks on the bridge continued into 2023 and 2025.
08:57Since the Kerch Bridge attack, Russia has transported much of its fuel and other supplies along highways
09:02through territories it controls along the Azov Sea coast, shipments that have now been disrupted by
09:08Ukrainian drone attacks. The strategic importance. Why Crimea matters. General Hodges stressed that
09:15Crimea is the most important terrain or geography for this war, and the side which controls Crimea is
09:21going to win the war. I cannot imagine the war ending with Russia in control of Crimea, and that being
09:28a
09:28long-term sustainable peace. Because as long as Russia controls Crimea, Ukraine will never be able to get up in
09:35the Azov Sea, or do the rebuild of Mariupol or Bryansk. And then of course, Russia could still disrupt shipping
09:42coming out of Odessa or Mykolaiv, for example. So Crimea has to be sorted. Risks and consequences.
09:50According to the American general, the situation is difficult. If the Russian army is strong in
09:55every village in the territory of Ukraine, it is still a chance for Ukraine to take back Crimea.
10:01But the retaliation by Russian heavy weapons will not be in vain. Russia will attack Ukrainian cities
10:07with missiles of the highest level, but Russia will inevitably face serious consequences. The general
10:13noted that Russia will not shoot at Crimea with nuclear weapons because Crimea is inhabited by Russians,
10:19many of the structures are achievements of Russia, which has occupied Crimea since 2014.
10:24So it is an opportunity for the Ukrainian army to take back Crimea, but Ukraine must risk Russian
10:31escalation if the peninsula falls into its hands. Mr. Putin, the warlord, must face his own fate. This
10:39dictator will be cursed by the Russian people and will want to disappear from Moscow, or not. The fate will
10:46fall on the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian army, and the Ukrainian leader, especially on the Ukrainian
10:52president. If Crimea falls into the hands of Ukraine, the world will consider Volodymyr Zelenskyy a hero of
10:59the Great Patriotic War. Could it happen in weeks? Observers expect it will be five months before Ukraine can
11:06deploy ground troops to break through the border at scale. However, the Russian military has been seen
11:11withdrawing its forces from some parts of the Crimean border. In the south of Ukraine, the Ukrainian
11:17army has been pushing back the border for the past few days, and this gap has allowed Ukrainian forces
11:22to break through some of the Crimean border corridors. Whether Ukraine can fully return Crimea to its
11:29original owners in a matter of weeks remains the central question. But as the bridges fall,
11:34the fuel dries up, and the Russian military stretches thin, momentum is building on the Ukrainian side.
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