Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Kyiv is planning to hold the captured Russian territory indefinitely in order for the country to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.
In an interview with NBC News, Zelenskyy said “We don’t need their land. We don’t want to bring our Ukrainian way of life there.”
The Ukraine is planning to hold the territory of Russia’s Kursk region as it is a part of the “victory plan” to bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an end, which has been ongoing since February 2022.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Defence Ministry Press Office, a strategically important bridge over the river Seym is destroyed by Ukrainian troops as they continue their incursion into the Kursk region, Russia, Friday, Aug. 16, 2024. (Ukrainian Defence Ministry Press Office via AP)
Zelenskyy added that Kyiv is looking to bring an international partner like the United States in order for it to present the proposal. On Ukraine holding the Russian territory, he said, “For now, we need it.”
In a secretive operation, the Ukrainian military entered Russia’s border and captured the Kursk region partially which challenged the war’s status quo being maintained for the past two and a half years.
Zelenskyy further detailed the ‘pre-emptive’ strike by the country inside of Russian territory, which was the first since World War 2, and said it was necessitated in order to halt the Russian military from creating a buffer zone along Ukraine’s border.
Ukraine claims that it has seized control of 500 square miles of Russian territory and even holds hundreds of Russians as prisoners of war.
The United States had distanced itself from Ukraine’s attack inside Russian territory and President Zelenskyy agreed in an NBC News’ interview that Washington wasn’t aware of their plans.
“Yes, we did not inform anyone. And it’s not the question of lack of trust,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Kyiv’s earlier counteroffensive failed as it was advertised too much and hence Russia got a chance to prepare accordingly.
President Zelenskyy claimed that even the Ukrainian intelligence services weren’t aware about the attack and the unawareness made the offensive a success.
