Ukraine has no immediate plan to leave Kursk, says Zelenskiy
- 5 September, 08:34
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Kyiv intends to indefinitely hold Russia’s Kursk region to use it as a bargaining chip. In the first exclusive interview since Ukrainian troops’ incursion into Kursk region in early August, Zelenskiy told NBC news channel this week that Ukraine will “hold” the Russian region as it is integral to his “victory plan” to end the war. “For now, we need it,” Zelenskiy explained. He stressed that “We don’t need their land. We don’t want to bring our Ukrainian way of life there.”
The Ukrainian leader revealed that the incursion into Kursk was a covert operation and the Pentagon had no prior information about it. Zelenskiy said the reason Ukraine’s offensive last year was not successful was that it was advertised and talked about, which gave Russians a chance to prepare.
This time, even Ukrainian intelligence services did not know about Kursk operation, Zelenskiy said, adding that
“I shrunk to the maximum the circle of people who knew about this operation. “Yes, we did not inform anyone. And it’s not the question of lack of trust,” he stressed.
Zelenskiy refused to comment on whether Ukrainian troops would capture more Russian territories. “It’s like the beginning of our Kursk operation. I think that the success is very close to a surprise.”
Ukraine launched an unprecedented incursion into Russia’s Kursk region on August 6, which marked the largest attack on Russian territory since the end of World War II.
More than two years after its full-fledged invasion of Ukraine, Russia still controls about a fifth of Ukraine's territory, having illegally annexed large portions of it.
Russia has also been carrying out indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, killing a large number of civilians.
