Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, who visited the occupied Kherson region, said that the region "

Earlier, Russian officials have already visited the Kherson region, but the visit of Marat Khusnullin and his statements can be compared with the trip of the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Russia Sergey Kiriyenko to the occupied Mariupol. And there, and there, I'm sure, a very clear signal: readiness not only for occupation, but also for annexation.

Ukrainians and Russians seem to live in parallel political realities. Ukrainian society considers the restoration of the country's territorial integrity to be a worthy end to the war - and many Western politicians and experts agree with Ukrainians on this..

And Russian officials at this time are thinking, as we see, about joining the occupied Ukrainian regions to Russia. And this time they are not even interested in the formalities, the creation of some new "

No, this time they are talking about “a place in the Russian family” simply on the fact of occupation. Public opinion is not taken into account. If people go to pro-Ukrainian rallies, they are simply dispersed, activists are kidnapped and intimidated. We can say that the annexation of the Kherson region is an “improved” annexation of the Crimea, shameless and cynical. But why?

If, in the case of Donbass, the desire for annexation is connected not only with the desire to establish control over the industrial basin and deprive Ukraine of an important part of its economy, but also with the desire to prepare a springboard for future attacks on neighboring Ukrainian regions, then in the situation with Kherson, the main goal is to ensure.

Even if the Russian troops fail to achieve what they want, establish control over the entire Ukrainian south, and after the occupation of Nikolaev and Odessa go to Transnistria, I am sure they will hold on to Kherson with all their might.

It is no coincidence that the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov, in his address to the heads of military departments of NATO member countries, speaks of the construction of fortifications by the enemy in the Kherson region.

The Russian military contingent located in the Kherson region seems to be preparing to defend and repel Ukrainian counterattacks.

The fact that Kherson is in direct and immediate danger could already be said in 2014, when Crimea was occupied and annexed. Without a direct connection to the mainland, the peninsula was doomed to economic degradation.. The successful defense of the Kherson region was the key to the return of the Crimea.

But now we can only say that the key to the return of Crimea, I am sure, will be the de-occupation of Kherson.

Original.