Insane in the membrane: Kiev restates goal of retaking Crimea | 15 Jan 2024 | Kiev still plans to retake all of the territory it has lost to Russia over the past decade, Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umarov has insisted. His comments come after admissions that the country's much-touted counteroffensive last year failed to overcome Russian defenses. Speaking alongside several other senior Ukrainian officials at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos on Sunday, Umarov was asked to comment on reports that the U.S. is disappointed with Kiev's military strategy for 2024. The defense minister would neither confirm nor deny the allegation... Umerov also noted that Kiev's "strategic objective is...to get to the 1991 borders." This would entail retaking the Crimean Peninsula, which voted overwhelmingly to join Russia in 2014 after the leaders of a Western-backed coup in Kiev scrapped local language rights. It would also involve wresting control of four other regions which voted to become part of Russia in the autumn of 2022.