Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that Kyiv intends to indefinitely hold the Russian land it seized in its surprise incursion last month.
“We don’t need their land. We don’t want to bring our Ukrainian way of life there,” he told NBC News in a translated interview.
The Ukrainian leader said “hold[ing]” the territory is vital to his “victory plan” to end the war, which has stretched more than 2-and-a-half years since Russia invaded Ukraine, per NBC News’s translation.
It has been nearly a month since Ukrainian troops launched a surprise attack into the western Kursk region in Russia on Aug. 6. Since then, an estimated 180,000 people have been evacuated from the Kursk region, and Ukraine has captured about 450 square miles of Russian territory, marking the first time the nation’s sovereignty has been violated since World War II.
More than 100 Russian soldiers were captured as prisoners of war, some of whom were later swapped with Russia for Ukranian prisoners, the Associated Press reported.
Zelensky told NBC News the Aug. 6 mission was a “pre-emptive strike” to prevent Russian forces from establishing a buffer zone along Ukraine’s border. He declined to say whether Ukraine is planning to attempt to take more Russian land.
“I will not tell, I’m sorry,” he said, per NBC. “With all respect, I can’t speak about it. I think the success is very close to surprise.”
The incursion forced Russia to divert some troops from parts of eastern Ukraine to the Kursk region, according to Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief. He claimed an estimated 30,000 Russian troops were moved to the Kursk area, though The Hill cannot independently verify that number.
Zelensky last week said he is planning to eventually present a peace plan to President Biden and current White House candidates, Vice President Harris and former President Trump. This plan is four stages, he said, with the first being the incursion into the Kursk region.
Zelensky said he plans to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York this month, during which he plans to meet with Biden and present the plan. He will also share with Harris and Trump, given the uncertainty of who will win the 2024 election, he added.
Part of his proposals include holding onto the seized Russian land, he told NBC and stated, “For now, we need it.”
The Ukranian president revealed the Biden administration was not informed of Kyiv’s plans to cross into Russia, noting it was not a “question of lack of trust,” but rather to prevent the Russians from having time to prepare.
“I shrunk to the maximum the circle of people who knew about this operation,” Zelensky added. “I think it was one of the reasons why it was successful.”
While Kyiv has made progress in the Kursk region, Russian attacks have continued, with Moscow’s troops pushing ahead in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. The army is closing in on Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub for the Ukrainian defense.
Zelensky on Tuesday said a Russian strike killed 41 people and injured more than 180 others in a region of central Ukraine. Other regions across Ukraine were also targeted.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the strike.
