Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the aim of a surprise incursion into Russia's southern Kursk region launched last month is to accrue territories and troops for exchange but said, "We don't need their land."
"We don't need Russian territory," Zelenskiy told NBC News through an interpreter in an interview excerpted on September 3.
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"Our operation is aimed at restoring our territorial integrity. We capture Russian troops to replace them with Ukrainian," he said. "We tell them, you know, we need our military soldiers in exchange for Russian ones. The same attitude is to the territories. We don't need their land."
Since its incursion began in the Kursk region in early August, Kyiv claims to have gained control of more than 1,200 kilometers of Russian territory.
Early reports hinted that the operation was intended to better position Kyiv in the event of peace talks amid some calls for more intense efforts to end the 36-month-old full-scale war.
Ukrainians and analysts have also suggested it is designed to drive the seriousness of the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine home to Russians.
It marked the first foreign invasion of Russian territory since World War II.
Kyiv and some of its allies have argued recently that Western providers of military aid, weapons, and artillery should further lift restrictions on how Ukrainian defense forces can use such supplies, including by allowing strikes deeper inside Russia.
Asked if Ukraine will seek to capture more Russian territory, Zelenskiy replied to NBC in English: "I will not tell you. Sorry, I can't speak about it."