Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday (27) that the operation by his country’s armed forces in the Russian Kursk oblast, where Kiev claims to control part of the territory, is not an occupation but rather a defensive action to prevent Kremlin troops from taking more Ukrainian territory.
“Today there is no occupation on our side,” said Zelensky, who has repeatedly insisted since Ukraine launched its invasion of Kursk on August 6 that Kiev has no intention of seizing other people’s territories.
“We have to defend our territory and we use all means from the territory of the Russian Federation to prevent them from occupying ours,” the Ukrainian president said at a press conference with dozens of media outlets held in Kiev.
The Ukrainian head of state added that the aim of taking Kursk – where, according to the head of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine already controls a hundred localities and almost 1,300 square kilometers – is “to prevent [os russos] take more” Ukrainian territory.
Zelensky also referred to the behavior of Ukrainian troops – from which there were no reports of massacres, looting or other abuses like those perpetrated by the Russian Army in Ukraine – towards the Russian population of the Kursk territories under Kiev’s control.
“I think our people are just better,” Zelensky said, adding: “Do you think I called the commander-in-chief [do Exército ucraniano] to tell him to give people water or something?”
Zelensky further emphasized the importance of “not being like those who brought us war.”
“We behave like human beings and it is important to preserve that,” he stressed.
The Ukrainian president also stated that the fact that dictator Vladimir Putin is, in his opinion, prioritizing the seizure of more territories in eastern Ukraine over the defense of his own territory in Kursk, helps the international community, especially the Global South, to understand that Russia’s war against Ukraine is not defensive in nature, as the Kremlin claims.
Operation in Kursk thwarted Russian plans to open another front in Ukraine
Also at a news conference on Tuesday, Oleksandr Syrskyi, head of the Ukrainian army, said the Kursk operation had prevented Russia from proceeding with its plans to launch a new cross-border offensive that would have opened a new front for Ukraine in the Sumy region.
“They were planning an offensive precisely there, so we need to have a security zone to prevent an incursion by the Russian Federation and protect people and localities in the area,” Syrskyi said.
He explained that Ukraine continues to make “progress” in the Kursk region and that Kiev forces have managed to capture 594 Russian prisoners of war in the region since the start of the operation.
According to Syrskyi, Russian troops are trying to encircle Ukrainian soldiers occupying Kursk. Russia is also trying to counterattack, but Ukraine is managing to hold its positions for now.
On the other hand, the head of the Ukrainian Army described as “complex” the situation in the Donetsk region, in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces continue to press, especially in the direction of the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk.
According to Syrskyi, Russia intends to cut the line that runs from Pokrovsk to the city of Kostiantinivka, also in Donetsk, and is paying a very high price to carry out these plans.
According to data from the head of the Ukrainian Army, Russia loses up to 300 soldiers on this part of the front every day.
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