Ukrainian official offers plan for Crimea amid expected counteroffensive

A top Ukrainian official on Sunday outlined a series of steps the government in Kyiv would take after the country reclaims control of Crimea, including dismantling the strategic bridge that links the seized Black Sea peninsula to Russia.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, published the plan as Ukraine's military prepares for a spring counteroffensive in hopes of making new, decisive gains after more than 13 months of war to end Russia's full-scale invasion.

Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, but most of the world does not recognize it as Russian territory. The peninsula's future status will be a key feature in any negotiations on ending the current fighting.

The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine recognize Russia's sovereignty over Crimea and acknowledge other land gains made by Moscow as a condition for peace. Kyiv has ruled out any peace talks with Moscow until Russian troops leave all occupied territories, including Crimea.

Danilov suggested prosecuting Ukrainians who worked for the Moscow-appointed administration in Crimea, adding that some would face criminal charges and others would lose government pensions and be banned from public jobs.

All Russian citizens who moved to Crimea after 2014 should be expelled, and all real estate deals made under Russian rule nullified, Danilov wrote on Facebook.

As part of the plan, he also called for dismantling a 19-kilometre bridge that Russia built to Crimea. A truck bomb severely damaged the bridge, Europe's longest, in October. Moscow blamed Ukrainian military intelligence for the attack.

Russia has repaired the damaged section of the bridge and restored the flow of supplies to Crimea, which has served as a key hub for the Russian military during the war. Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the bomb, but Ukrainian officials had repeatedly threatened to strike the bridge in the past.

U.S. 'not actively encouraging' move onCrimea

In February, Politico quoted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken as saying that Washington is "not actively encouraging" Ukraine to retake Crimea and that the decision isKyiv's to make. The mediacompany said Pentagon officials have in recent weeks questioned Ukraine's ability to take Crimea in the near future, given the ongoing fighting in the Donbas and in Ukraine's south.

During a virtual panelthatBlinken chaired from the U.S. State Department last Tuesday, he said "many voices" are suggesting Ukraine is not capable of fully restoring its "territorial integrity," that it's not possible or that it's "too risky and too dangerous to try to liberate Crimea [and] that Vladimir Putin will not give up the peninsula."

However, Blinken went on to say, "Ukraine is by no means weak."

"We need to support the brave Ukrainians and make sure that they will have all the means to restore the territorial integrity of their country, including Crimea," he said.

Blinken seeks release of Americans

In a separate development, Blinken made a phone call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to urge the immediate release of two Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan the State Department said on Sunday.

Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was arrested in Moscow last week on espionage charges. Blinken conveyed "grave concern over Russia's unacceptable detention of a U.S. citizen journalist," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.

WATCH |Russia arrests American journalist on espionage charges:

Russia arrests American journalist on espionage charges | About That

2 years ago

Duration 1:38

Mar. 30, 2023 | Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained by Russia's security agency on charges of espionage. The Wall Street Journal denies the allegations.

Whelan, a Canadian-born corporate security executive from Michigan, has been imprisoned in Russia since December 2018 on a 16-year sentence, also on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government have said are baseless.

The Kremlin said Lavrov told Blinken it was unacceptable for U.S. officials and Western news media to continue "whipping up excitement" and politicizing the journalist's detention. "His further fate will be determined by the court," Russia's Foreign Ministry said.

Russia denounces Crimea plan as 'sick'

In his Crimea plan,Danilov also argued for renaming the city of Sevastopol,a key Crimean port and the main base for the Russian Black Sea Fleet since the 19th century. He said it could be called Object No. 6 before the Ukrainian parliamentchooses another name, suggesting Akhtiar after a village that once stood where the city is now.

The Moscow-appointed head of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, shrugged off Danilov's plan as "sick."

"It would be wrong to seriously treat comments by sick people. They must be cured, and that's what our military is doing now," Razvozhayev told the Russian state news agency Tass.

Danilov published his plan as Ukrainian troops prepared to use newly supplied Western weapons, including dozens of battle tanks, to break through Russian defences and reclaim occupied areas in a counteroffensive expected as early as this month.

Russian troops are trying to capture the key Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut as part of their efforts to take all of Donetsk province, which is part of Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas. The eight-month campaign for Bakhmut is the longest and potentially deadliest battle of the war.

Russia's latest rocket and artillery attacks killed four civilians and wounded 15 others since Saturday, according to the Ukrainian military.

Shelling in Donetsk

Ukrainian authorities reported that Russian shelling killed another six civilians later Sunday in Kostiantynivka, a small city in Donetsk province. The Russian barrage also damaged numerous residential buildings and wounded eight people, officials said.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the war has destroyed entire cities and killed tens of thousands of people.

Ukrainian Sports Minister Vadym Huttsait, reaffirming Kyiv's call to bar Russia from the Olympics, said the death toll included 262 Ukrainian athletes.

The include Vitalii Merinov, a four-time world kickboxing champion. Merinov, who had joined the Ukrainian armed forces, died Friday of wounds sustained in action, according to the mayor of the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk.