Ukraine also showed the truth to the Russians that they are “not a priority” for Putin.
He spoke about this in an interview with The New Yorker.
Zelensky recalled that Russia was pressing in the east, while Ukraine did not receive timely and sufficient help from its allies. The occupiers managed to capture part of the Kharkiv region and were preparing to attack Sumy.
The President said that it was too early to assess whether the offensive on Kursk would go down in history as a success or a failure, but so far it has brought results.
“It slowed the Russians down and forced them to move some of their forces to Kursk, about forty thousand soldiers. Zelensky stressed that the operation in Kursk “showed our partners what we are capable of” and also demonstrated to the Global South that the Russian dictator cannot keep everything under control, as they say.
“And we showed the Russians an important truth. Unfortunately, many of them turn a blind eye, they don't want to see or hear anything. But some Russians couldn't help but notice that Putin didn't run to defend his land. His people are not his priority,” Zelensky said.
The president added that Ukraine is providing the residents of Kursk with food and water, offering the opportunity to evacuate.
“And people in Moscow and St. Petersburg – far from Kursk – saw that if one day the Ukrainian army also appears there, it is not a fact that they will be saved. This is also an important part of this operation: long before the war reaches these places or some other crisis occurs, the Russians must know who they brought to power for a quarter of a century,” Zelensky concluded.
He added that “this war is being waged not only for territory, but also for values.”
- On September 16, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry sent a note to the UN and the ICRC calling for them to join the humanitarian response in the Kursk region. “We are ready to provide comprehensive assistance to the activities of the UN and ICRC staff in the specified territories.”
- Later it became known that UN representatives are ready to arrive in the part of the Kursk region controlled by Ukraine for humanitarian response measures, but they need Russia's permission to do so.
- Earlier, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky also announced entire operations in Kursk in an interview with CNN. Among them are to prevent Moscow from attacking Ukrainian territory in this direction, to pull Russian forces away from other parts of the front, to create a security zone, and to prevent shelling of civilian targets across the border. It was also necessary to capture more enemies and raise the morale of Ukrainian soldiers and the country as a whole.