Biden official tells Congress Ukraine could take back Crimea: report

A Biden administration official told several members of Congress at a briefing last month that Ukraine now has the military capability to retake Crimea from Russia, NBC News reported on Friday.

The official was reportedly asked whether Ukraine would try to retake the peninsula, which Russia has held since 2014, and responded that it has the ability to do so. 

However, another U.S. official told NBC that they do not believe a Ukrainian offensive in Crimea is imminent.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously indicated that he hopes to take back the Crimean Peninsula, in addition the four Ukrainian regions that Russian President Vladimir Putin formally annexed earlier this year.

“We will definitely liberate Crimea,” Zelensky said in a late October address, adding, “The return of the Ukrainian flag to Crimea is the return of the normality familiar to all Europeans, as it is available in each of your countries.”

Zelensky’s remarks came in the wake of a series of Ukrainian successes on the battlefield, particularly in the annexed regions.

However, another U.S. official warned that a Ukrainian effort in Crimea could trigger Putin to use nuclear weapons, as he has previously threatened to do, according to NBC.

Russia launched another barrage of missile strikes at Ukraine on Friday, killing at least two people in a residential building in the central city of Kryvyi Rih and knocking out power to the northeastern city of Kharkiv. Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv was also targeted.

The strikes follow Russia’s warning to the U.S. on Thursday that the delivery of the Patriot air defense system to Ukraine would be viewed as “provocative.” The U.S. is reportedly considering sending the advanced weapons system to Ukraine to help the nation fend off Russian air strikes.