The liberation of Crimea by Ukraine may lead to the use of a nuclear bomb by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and failure to resolve the issue of the peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, may lead to a decade-long conflict, the Washington Post writes, Ukrainian Pravda reports.

The American publication notes that the Russian invasion of Ukraine actually began in 2014, from the Crimean Peninsula, and not in February 2014. Currently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insists that the war will end only after Crimea is recaptured and all Russian invaders are driven out.

“His recovery will mean the restoration of peace,” Zelenskyy said in October. “Russia’s aggressive potential will be completely destroyed when the Ukrainian flag returns to its rightful place – in the cities and villages of Crimea,” he added.

But for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the annexation of Crimea has become a pillar of his achievements, a legacy he will leave behind that will be shaken if he loses the peninsula.

Putin noted that any attempts by Ukraine to return Crimea would mean crossing a red line that he would not tolerate.

The publication notes that Ukraine’s hope for the return of Crimea has long seemed like a far-fetched fantasy, but Kyiv’s recent victories on the battlefield and Moscow’s mistakes have suddenly made it plausible – perhaps even dangerous.

The West, supporting Ukraine, fears that any “Ukrainian military invasion of Crimea” could prompt Putin to take radical action, perhaps even to use a nuclear bomb.

Some Western officials hope that the agreement on the transfer of Crimea to Russia can become the basis for a diplomatic end to the war.

The Ukrainians reject the idea as dangerously naive, while the Russians say they won’t accept what is already theirs.

The WP believes that the refusal of either side to back down risks turning the war into a protracted one that could drag on for decades, as in the Gaza Strip or Nagorno-Karabakh.

The restoration of Crimea “seems inevitable.”

In early October, the Guardian reported that Tamila Tasheva, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s chief representative on Crimea, and her team were spending days debating issues such as how many Ukrainian teachers or police officers should be sent to the peninsula if Kyiv regains control, among other things. will be needed to help reverse eight years of Russian rule.

No serious military analyst suggests that Ukraine is close to being able to take back Crimea, but the idea seems far less fantastical than it did a year ago.

“This is the moment of X. Now everything is happening in a way that seems inevitable,” Tasheva said in October. “It might not happen tomorrow, but I think it will happen a lot sooner than I thought a year ago.”

Ukrainian officials say that Crimea is the key to stopping the Russian military machine, which is why there have been many attacks in the area, including bombings at the Saki air base.

In November, Ukraine admitted that at the end of October, its forces launched attacks on the Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol in Crimea.

Ukraine staged such an attack for the first time after footage was shared on social media that captured the moment Ukrainians attacked the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea and showed one of the drones approaching the Admiral Makarov frigate. .

According to HI Sutton, an independent defense analyst, the type of drone that Ukraine used in October to attack the Russian fleet in Sevastopol is the same one that was found near the base in September.