Ukraine intends to hold the Russian territory it is occupying indefinitely, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
He explained Ukraine plans to “hold” the land but declined to specify whether it would try to expand the amount of Russian territory under its occupation.
“For now, we need it,” he said in an interview with NBC News set to air Tuesday night. “We don’t need the Russian territory.”
“Our operation is aimed to restore our territorial integrity,” he added, indicating that the motivator may have been an ability to use this as leverage to get Russia to negotiate an end to the war.
In early August, Ukrainian forces pushed into Kursk, Russia, right over the border, and Ukraine now claims it controls nearly 500 square miles of Russian territory. The Ukrainians did not warn many allies about the ambitious operation due to concerns that they would not receive support for the mission.
RUSSIAN STRIKES KILL MORE THAN 40 UKRAINIANS
Also on Tuesday, Russian strikes hit a military education facility in Poltava, Ukraine, killing more than 40 people and injuring at least 180 others. It was one of the deadliest strikes since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly requested that the United States and some other Western allies reverse the restrictions placed on how Ukrainian forces use the weapons they provide. The U.S. initially did not allow Ukraine to use its weapons to hit targets in Russia, but President Joe Biden reversed that decision in May, but only partially.
Ukraine is allowed to use U.S.-provided weapons to hit military targets near the Ukraine-Russia border, and the change was implemented after Russian forces began launching aerial strikes on Ukraine from right over the border. Ukraine wants to be able to hit military targets anywhere in Russia, not just the area along the border.
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Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, Pentagon spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday that there “has been no change as it relates to potential Ukrainian operations.”
The U.S. has provided Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars of military equipment, but at the same time, the Biden administration has declined to meet some requests that the U.S. has thought could be provocative toward Russia.
