Kiev, July 25 (IANS) Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov has said that attacks will continue on Crimea and the Kerch bridge, which connects the occupied peninsula to mainland Russia.
In an interview with CNN, the Defence Minister said: “All these targets are official targets because it will reduce their capacity to fight against us (and) will help to save the lives of Ukrainians.”
When asked if Ukraine’s aim was to permanently disable the bridge, Reznikov responded: “It’s normal tactics to ruin the logistic lines of your enemy to stop the options to get more ammunition, to get more fuel, to get more food, etcetera. That’s why we will use these tactics against them.”
Reznikov also accused Russia of operating as “a terrorist state” as it continued to pummel the Ukrainian port city of Odesa and the surrounding region over the past week.
On Monday — the fifth night of Russian strikes in Odesa — more than two dozen landmarks in the historic city centre were damaged, while drones pounded the region’s port infrastructure, targeting crucial grain stocks days.
The barrage comes after Moscow, in retaliation to the attack on the Kerch bridge earlier this month, withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative that allowed for the safe export of Ukrainian wheat to international markets, exacerbating a global food crisis.
“This approach is absurd, but it’s real and that’s why it’s new evidence they are a terrorist state,” Reznikov told CNN.
“(Russia) tried to explain that it’s a response for some explosions in their territories, but they are fighting with the civilians… That’s why I call them looters, rapists and murderers.”
Asked if Ukraine plans to ramp up attacks against Russian ships in the Black Sea in retaliation, he said: “We have capacity. We have weapons as we did with the cruiser Moskva and if they threaten us in the Black Sea, we’ll have to respond.”
Russian guided-missile cruiser Moskva sank in the Black Sea in April in an attack claimed by Ukrainian officials.
When asked if he thought the war would be over by next summer, the Defence Minister replied: “Yes. We will win this war.”
–IANS
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