zelensky said he would "defend" the occupied russian territory indefinitely. russian mps: he did this to instill confidence in the ukrainian army
2024-09-05
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[global times comprehensive report] according to a report by the national broadcasting corporation (nbc) on september 3, ukrainian president zelensky said in an interview with the media that day that kiev is planning to hold on to the territory occupied during the raid on russia indefinitely, in an attempt to force russia to sit at the negotiating table.
ukrainian president zelensky, file photo
according to reports, this is the first one-on-one interview that zelensky has given since the ukrainian army carried out a high-risk cross-border operation. he said, "we don't need their land. we don't want to bring our ukrainian way of life there." but ukraine will "hold on" to the russian territory it has seized because it is part of ukraine's "victory plan" to end the conflict. "now, we need it," zelensky said.
on the other hand, zelensky said he could not discuss whether ukraine planned to seize more russian territory. "with all due respect, i cannot talk about this. i think success is very close to a surprise," he said.
zelensky reportedly told nbc that the biden administration had no prior knowledge of the ukrainian military's plan to launch a cross-border attack on russia, and that it was a secret even in ukraine. he said that even ukrainian intelligence was unaware of the operation, "i minimized the scope of people who knew about the operation, and i think this is one of the reasons why the operation was successful." according to reports, zelensky believes that the ukrainian counterattack last summer failed in many ways because there was too much publicity and discussion about the counterattack, which gave the russian side an opportunity to prepare.
according to a russian news website, russian federation council (upper house of parliament) member dzhabarov said that zelensky's words about indefinite control of kursk territory were crazy and that he was trying to instill confidence in the ukrainian army. "he knows very well that the front line near donetsk is collapsing. of course, the ukrainian army will be destroyed near kursk."
according to nbc, the ukrainian army is shrinking in eastern ukraine, and the russian army is gradually approaching the occupation of the key hub of pokrovsk and the neighboring toretsk. zelensky said that one of the goals of the ukrainian army's raid on kursk was to force moscow to withdraw its troops from ukraine, especially in eastern ukraine. the report said that although zelensky said that russia had transferred 60,000 soldiers from ukraine to kursk, the number of soldiers around pokrovsk has not been significantly reduced. (lin zeyu liu yupeng)
