Ukraine rejects Russian offer to return military wrecks from Crimea

First Deputy Chair of Ukrainian Parliament Iryna
Herashchenko has dismissed Russian president Vladimir Putin’s offer to return Ukrainian
military equipment still in Crimea. “They are brought to an awful condition by
the invaders, just like the entire Crimea. Everything touched by the ‘Russian
world’ comes to a waste,” Herashchenko wrote on her blog on Jan. 11. President
Putin had offered the equipment when talking with Russian magazine editors on
Jan. 11, and had specifically mentioned the state of the equipment, which
includes warships and a submarine as well as aviation and land vehicles,
calling them “wrecks” and pointing out that they had not maintained the pieces
over the years.

James Hydzik: The war of words between Russia and Ukraine has not diminished, and
given the upcoming meetings between Russia and Ukraine’s allies, we can expect
an escalation in the media for the next few weeks. Unfortunately, there has
also been an uptick in military action in Donbas despite the holiday ceasefire
and this can also be expected to intensify. However, we do not expect a major
thrust beyond the current ATO zone in Donetsk and Luhansk regions from the east
at this time.