Former US general Hodges forecasts liberation of Mariupol and Crimea
Armed Forces of Ukraine (Photo:facebook.com/okPivden)
The liberation of Kherson will allow the Armed Forces of Ukraine to attack Russian troops on the edges of Crimea with HIMARS, significantly aiding further liberations, the former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, General Ben Hodges, wrote on Twitter on Nov. 12.
"HIMARS will soon be fired from Kherson," Hodges wrote.
“The approaches to Crimea are within reach. This will weaken Russian defenses, while the ‘left wing’ of the counteroffensive will take Mariupol and Melitopol by January. Then the decisive stage of the campaign begins...the liberation of Crimea.”
The GMLRS rockets that Ukraine’s HIMARS rocket launchers fire have ranges of up to 70 kilometers, meaning they can reach most of the Russian-occupied left-bank part of Kherson Oblast.
Russia is reported to have already evacuated a helicopter base in Chaplynka, located roughly midway between Nova Kakhovka on the left bank of the Dnipro River and Krasnoperekopsk in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea – allegedly due to the threat of attack by Ukraine’s HIMARS.
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