Ukraine is waging a defensive war and will not attack the territory of the Russian Federation, said Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar.

"Our task is to liberate our territories, we are niether aggressors, nor invaders, we are waging a defensive war, within which there can be offensive actions, we have seen this. By the way, if we are talking about the liberation of a part of Kharkiv region, the Ukrainian army carried out such an offensive for the first time, this is unique, because we were always preparing for defense, we were not going to attack anyone. Now our doctrine is that we are waging a defensive war, so we will not attack foreign territories, we are returning our own," Maliar said in an interview published on the ISLND TV YouTube channel.

The Deputy Minister stressed that Ukraine adheres to all norms of international law.

"We are not Russians, one need to be clearly aware of this. And no matter how much we joke about these topics, these are really the number one topics for folklore right now - how and where we will celebrate the victory. But if we talk seriously about these things, Ukraine adheres to all the norms of international law, and we guarantee it from our side that we comply with them," said Maliar, adding that "there are different ways to influence the shortening of the life of this empire."