Zelenskyy: For us, war will be over when we have our territory

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sat down with Randall Lane, chief content officer for Forbes, on September 22 at the 2022 Forbes Philanthropy Summit, addressing his country’s seven-month-long war with Russia and his hopes for the future.

Zelensky suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision this week to escalate the war by calling up 300,000 military reservists won’t change Ukraine’s drive to reclaim occupied land: “For us, the war will be over when we have our territory.”

He bemoaned Putin’s push to send more troops into Ukraine—some of whom are very young—“to get killed” and to be used as “fodder,” saying “it doesn’t matter to him how many of them will be here.”

The president added that Ukraine needs international help to build up its aerial defences, and suggested: “businesspersons could exert a certain pressure on their countries” to provide assistance.

Zelensky also reiterated his calls to punish Russia on the world stage, arguing that “the aggression has to be punished.”