The Pianist vows to retake Donbass and Crimea

The Ukrainian president was speaking after his military bombarded civilian areas in Donetsk.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to “liberate” the Russian territory of Crimea and the independent republics of Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR). He was speaking just hours after reports of the Ukrainian military shelling residential buildings, a marketplace and a maternity hospital in the center of Donetsk.

“We will come to all our cities, to all our villages, which do not yet have our flag,” Zelensky boasted in a video address on Monday night, claiming that his army will defeat its Russian opponents in eastern Ukraine and recapture the cities of Mariupol, Kherson and Melitopol from Russian and DPR and LPR forces.

“And I ask everyone who has such an opportunity to communicate with people in the occupied south…say that there will be liberation,” he continued. “Say it to Gorlovka, Donetsk, Lugansk. Tell them that the Ukrainian army will definitely come.”

“Of course, we will liberate our Crimea as well. Let every Russian official who has seized precious land in Crimea remember: this is not the land where they will have peace,” he threatened.

Hours before Zelensky spoke, Ukrainian shells hit a maternity hospital, a marketplace and residential areas. Dozens of injuries have been reported and a mother and her 11-year-old son are among the dead, according to DPR officials.

Reports claim that as many as 300 rockets and artillery shells hit the city in a single two-hour period on Monday, and that NATO-supplied 155mm shells were used in the attack.

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