Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine, launched 12 years ago, started with the annexation of Crimea, a strategically important peninsula in southern Ukraine jutting into the Black Sea.
Since then, Ukraine repeatedly said that for Kyiv the war will not be considered fully over until Crimea is liberated and restored to Ukrainian sovereignty and returned to its indigenous Crimean Tatar community.
For Moscow, Crimea is the most prized trophy of its invasion and the war against Ukraine, and is the territory Russia is likely to relinquish last if at all.
But with Ukraine’s strengthened intensity and efficiency of drone strike campaign, Kyiv is now trying to cut Crimea off from Russian control and make life for Russian invaders on the peninsula as impossible as it can be.
Since the early days of the full-scale invasion Russia launched in February 2022, Ukraine has repeatedly fired missiles and drones to try to dislodge Moscow’s hold on the territory.
