War in Ukraine: Volodymyr Zelensky’s bet in Crimea

Almost six months after the outbreak of Russian aggression against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s determination remains intact. This war, imposed by an invader much more powerful than its victim, nevertheless remains particularly difficult in the Donbass, where the Russian steamroller, after the bitter failure of its initial offensive on kyiv, continues to advance, even very laboriously. In quick succession, two attacks on Russian military sites in Crimea have just shown that the Ukrainian authorities refuse to resign themselves to submission. These tactical blows, not officially claimed, in no way presume an offensive of which the Ukrainian army remains totally incapable as it stands. But they translate the will to widen the military options, to display a strategy of reconquest and also to wage battle on the terrain of symbols. Read also: War in Ukraine, live: Volodymyr Zelensky asks the inhabitants of the occupied areas not to approach Russian military bases These attacks indeed reinscribe the ongoing conflict in the Ukrainian narrative, which fixes the beginning of the aggression not on February 24, 2022, but eight years earlier, on February 27, 2014, with the launch of Russian military operations in the peninsula, the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The latter were to lead to a unilateral annexation that a controversial referendum would attempt to cover with a veil of legitimacy. The United Nations has never recognized it. New maps This battle of stories is as strategic as that fought by arms. Until now, the calm enjoyed by Crimea, the starting point for the invasion by Russian troops of southern Ukraine, validated Vladimir Putin’s thesis of a territorial conquest that was no longer in dispute. The stays of many Russian nationals on its shores bathed by the waters of the Black Sea supported it. The deterioration of the situation, which has led to hasty departures in recent hours, is brutal and blurs Moscow’s propaganda. If it is also confirmed, as some experts estimate, that they were caused by bombardments from an unprecedented range (about 200 kilometres), these attacks potentially create a new situation. This could force the aggressor to review a large part of his military system. Anxious not to fuel an uncontrolled escalation, the Western allies have so far limited themselves to military aid which does not theoretically allow such bombardments. Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Ukraine: Crimea overtaken by war boldness. Declaring on August 9 that “the war in Ukraine began with the Crimea and must end with its liberation”, he confirmed that he considers the time for negotiation to have come less than ever, since he is playing new cards in the ongoing war of attrition. Vladimir Putin, who denounced Tuesday at a conference on security in Moscow the role of the United States, accused of “dragging” the conflict, will have to take into account once again, under pressure, the resilience of kyiv . Prisoner of a doxa which has made Crimea a red line, he will have no choice but to go one better, if the attacks attributed to Ukraine continue on the peninsula. It would then contribute to making more visible a war that it wanted to hide from its population. The world