Zelensky wants to push through and recapture Mariupol, Kherson and Melitopol

Zelensky wants to push through and recapture Mariupol, Kherson and Melitopol

Ukraine is preparing an offensive to retake the cities of Mariupol, Kherson and Melitopol from Russian troops, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily video address late Sunday night. “Maybe it seems that after a series of victories there has been silence, but it is not silence,” he said of the past few days.

The new attacks, according to Zelensky, will target not only areas that Russia has occupied since the invasion began in February, but also the Crimea peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, and areas in eastern Ukraine that with support from Russia are controlled by separatists. “Because all of Ukraine should be free,” the president said.

Despite the surprising advance of the Ukrainian army since the beginning of this month, Russia still controls some 125,000 square kilometers of territory in southern and eastern Ukraine, about a fifth of the country.

Ukraine’s counter-offensive has so far concentrated mainly on the area around Kharkov, but the next targets Mariupol, Kherson and Melitopol are much further south. Melitopol is also known as ‘the gateway to Crimea’.