President of Moldova Maia Sandu. File photoCHISINAU, May 18. Crimea remains part of Ukraine, Chisinau supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state, said Moldovan President Maia Sandu, who is in Brussels on a two-day working visit. «We will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, we support its sovereignty, Crimea is Ukraine, Donbass is Ukraine, Kyiv is Ukraine,» Sandu said, speaking at a plenary session of the European Parliament. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.» According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, as of March 25, they completed the main tasks of the first stage — they significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was the liberation of Donbass. On April 19, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the start of the next phase of the special operation. Volnovakha, a strategically important regional center south of Donetsk, and Mariupol, the largest city on the coast of the Sea of Azov, have been liberated in the DPR; the remnants of the enemy grouping are blocked on the territory of the Azovstal metallurgical plant. In the LPR, according to the RF Ministry of Defense, as of March 25, 93% of the former Luhansk region, within whose borders a republic was proclaimed, had been liberated. The cities of Severodonetsk, Lysychansk and a number of other settlements of this agglomeration remain under the control of Kyiv.
