Russians won’t get water to Crimea even with force – Reznikov

The Russians won't get water to Crimea even by force; a possible offensive because of the water will come at a price for Russia because it will have to shed the blood of Russian soldiers.

Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, Oleksii Reznikov stated this, the Ukrainska Pravda reports.

"It'll be a very expensive story for Russia. And the key question here is why? They just won't get water, even by force. They'll have to shed the blood of Russian soldiers," Reznikov said.

When asked whether Russia could try to capture Kherson for water, the deputy prime minister said that to get water to Crimea, they'd need to reach the Dnieper, capture half of the country to reach the source of the northern Crimean canal and control water. According to him, Russia should have a much larger military contingent than it has to attack.

Reznikov explained that, according to official data, which Russia doesn't deny, its armed forces number one million soldiers "for the whole of Russia, for 144 million people and their entire territory." These forces, among other things, are also needed to "hold borders and so on."

He also noted that for protection, a smaller military force was enough. At the same time, according to Reznikov, in Ukraine, the official contingent is 250 thousand, plus there are 50 thousand of the National Guard, plus 460 thousand citizens who've already passed through the front. Besides, he's convinced that other Ukrainians "will also defend their land."

Reznikov explained that in the case of Crimea being captured, it's clear why it was Russia: "they got this dream of 'Russian' Crimea, Sevastopol, they got an aircraft carrier on the Black Sea with access to the Mediterranean Sea, control of Syria, Turkey."

And there are no answers to the question of what Russia will get if it goes further to Donetsk or Luhansk, for example, or to Kherson.