The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky gave an interview to NBC News. In it, he talked about the Russian attack on Poltava on September 3, the offensive of Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region, and plans for the end of the war.
Babel made a short retelling of the interview — thatʼs the main thing.
Russian attack on Poltava
The NBC News interview was recorded on September 3, the day of the massive Russian attack on Poltava. According to the latest data, as a result of shelling in the city, 54 people died and another 297 were injured.
Zelensky says that the Russian missiles that hit the military Institute of Communications in Poltava flew for about three minutes. People did not have time to go down into the bomb shelter — many of those who were injured or killed were caught by rockets during their descent into the shelter.
"That is, people reacted quickly enough, but they did not manage to save themselves," the president added.
Kursk operation
Ukraine received intelligence that Russia was planning to create a buffer zone in Ukraine — that is why the Russians were attacking Kharkiv region and planning an attack on the Sumy region. Therefore, Kyiv launched a pre-emptive strike — and launched an offensive on Kursk in order to ease Russiaʼs pressure on the east and south of Ukraine.
Not only Washington, but also many institutions inside Ukraine did not know about the preparation of the operation in the Kursk region. According to Zelensky, this is what made the operation successful — the fact that almost no one knew about it.
"You see, this is a war, and there is a constant leak of information. And it may not be from a person, but through means of communication. Sometimes even in closed headquarters there is a leak of information. Because there are a lot of people, a lot of information, which means that there is a possibility of its leakage," says Zelensky.
Zelensky reminded that before the offensive in the south more than a year ago, there were already problems with information leakage. Then everyone knew about the operation, and, worst of all, its details were known to the Russians. At the same time, the president emphasized that Kyiv does not need the captured territory of the Kursk region or other territories of Russia.
"Our operation is aimed at restoring our territorial integrity. We donʼt need their [Russian Federation citizens] people, their civilians. We capture soldiers only in order to exchange them for ours," he says.
So Ukraine will keep the captured territory of Russia as long as it is necessary. At the same time, Zelensky said that he cannot discuss whether the Armed Forces of Ukraine plan to try to seize more territory of the Russian Federation.
Russia pulled about 60 000 of its troops from other areas of the front in Ukraine to the Kursk region. Ukrainian fighters were also able to capture more than 600 Russians in the Kursk direction.
Ukraineʼs victory plan
The president calls the Kursk offensive a "military-diplomatic" step of Ukraine and part of the "victory plan" that he will present to the US presidential administration. This plan depends only on Ukraine and international partners, not on Russia.
"This plan [of victory] can be implemented thanks to our partners, not thanks to Russiaʼs desire or unwillingness. It was very important for me, so that later in the dialogue no one would say: whether the Russian Federation will agree to this or not. This plan does not depend on them. And in this there is a choice of our partners — whether they agree that Ukraine will win, or whether they are not ready for our victory, but are ready only to contain Putin," Zelensky explained.
Ukraineʼs victory plan aims to force Russia to end the war and strengthen Ukraine.
Weapon
Weapons agreed by international partners do not reach Ukraine immediately. That is, formally, "on paper", it exists — for example, the US Congress voted for it, but it has not yet reached the front in Ukraine.
At one point, when packages of Western weapons did not reach Ukraine, the number of weapons used by Ukrainians in relation to Russians was equal to 1 to 12. That is, for one shell of Ukrainian artillery there were 12 Russian ones.
However, after the withdrawal of part of the Russian military from some areas of the front in Kurshchyna, this ratio changed to 1 to 3, in particular in the Pokrovsky direction of the front, which Zelensky calls one of the most difficult.
Escalation of the war
President Zelensky believes that the responsibility for the escalation lies with all countries, including "neutral" ones that trade with Russia despite its war with Ukraine.
Zelensky says that the escalation of the war will be the fault of all countries. For example, if Iran continues to supply Russia with weapons, it will be a collective responsibility. Because the USA and its partners could have stopped Iranʼs aid to Russia earlier, as was the case with the missile attack on Israel.
At the same time, according to the president, the possibility of escalation depends on Iran itself, because before that it was not a party to the war against Ukraine — until it started selling Shahed drones to Russia.
"But in any case, we should know that Putin will not shirk his responsibility. He killed many people, maimed many people," the president added. Therefore, he emphasized that the responsibility will be there in any case, and it will not be possible to "quietly end the war."
The end of the war
Ukraine will prepare a detailed plan for the end of the war and offer it for consideration at the second Peace Summit. Representatives of Russia must be present there, as other countries have demanded — without the Russian side, it will not be possible to end the war diplomatically.