The United States Department of Defense believes that Ukrainian troops should independently decide what operations to carry out to protect the state and liberate territories from Russian invaders.. This was stated by US Brigadier General Patrick Ryder at a press conference in response to a question whether the transfer of long-range GLSDB missiles to the Armed Forces in the new package provides for the possibility of using them for strikes on Crimea.

He confirmed that these ammunition will allow our defenders to hit enemy targets at a greater distance as part of new defense operations and the de-occupation of sovereign territory, but did not clearly answer the question asked..

" They (Ukrainians - ed.. ) are the main ones in this. Therefore, I am not going to talk or speculate about possible future operations.. But again, we worked with them to provide the capabilities that would allow them to be effective on the battlefield,"

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Earlier, Politico wrote that the Pentagon doubts that Ukrainian fighters will be able to de-occupy the annexed Crimea in the near future..