Tag: crimea

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed on Wednesday to end Russia's occupation of Crimea, and deflected criticism of Kyiv's handling of a grinding counteroffensive. Russia seized and annexed the Crimea peninsula in 2014 in a move not recognised by most other countries, and has occupied other parts of Ukraine in the south and east since its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Ukrainian troops began their counteroffensive to regain lost territory in early June, but progress has been slow as they encountered vast Russian minefields and trenches,...