Recapturing Crimea by military means is easier than Donbas - military expert

He expressed his opinion live on air of the Espreso TV channel.

"In my purely military point of view, putting aside geopolitical and political parts, no matter how strange it sounds, it is actually easier to retake Crimea by military methods than to liberate Donbas along the line of February 24. Long-range missiles with a range of up to 300 km, which can be provided only by Americans, can completely submerge Crimean bridge and then Russian troops have no logistics. In addition, we need as many F-16s as possible, which with the help of AGM-88 missiles, completely destroy Russia's air defense. And this aircraft can also take on board a very good AIM-120 AMRAAM missile with a target range of up to 180 km. Some of these aircraft engage in battles with their aircraft, and some banally destroy all heavy transport aircraft, starting from AN-124 Ruslan and ending with IL-76," military expert explained.

Petro Chernyk noted that Crimea, from the point of view of logistics, is a problem of the territory where there is neither water nor food.

"If such a strategy is applied within a few weeks, then people and personnel of the Russian army there will begin to starve, and they will raise their paws without a fight. This is a harsh reality. So, purely in the military part - this is absolute reality, but without weapons of the allies it is impossible to achieve this. And it is incredibly difficult to take Donbas along February 24 line, because everything there is concreted like on Siegfried Line at that time (line of defensive structures during the World War I and in the 1930s, which were built by Germany - ed.), as well as it requires huge human resource," Chernyk noted.

• Head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukrainian Ministry of Defense Kyrylo Budanov believes that Ukrainian Armed Forces are able to return Russian-occupied Crimea by summer of this year.

• Military expert, colonel of Ukrainian Armed Forces in reserve, Roman Svitan, also says that Ukrainian Armed Forces will enter Crimea by summer of this year.

• Serhiy Zgurets, director of the information and consulting company Defense Express, believes that liberation of Crimea will be organized in several stages.