Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during an interview with U.S. television host Tucker Carlson in Moscow, Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview that aired on Thursday that Russia will fight for its interests “to the end” but has no interest in expanding its war in Ukraine to other countries such as Poland and Latvia.

In his first interview with an American journalist since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago, Putin said Western leaders had come to realize it was impossible inflict a strategic defeat on Russia and were wondering what to do next.

“We are ready for this dialogue,” he said.

Putin also said he believed it was possible to reach an agreement to free U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal, who has been detained in Russia for nearly a year and is awaiting trial on spying charges.

Putin made the comments in a more than two-hour interview with conservative talk-show host Tucker Carlson that was conducted in Moscow on Tuesday and aired on tuckercarlson.com.

“Only in one case, if Poland attacks Russia. Why? Because we have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. Why would we do that? We simply don’t have any interest.”

Putin spoke in Russian and his remarks were dubbed into English. He began with lengthy remarks about Russia’s relations with Ukraine, Poland and other countries.

Putin devoted a substantial part of the interview to complaining that Ukraine had been on the verge of agreeing a deal to end hostilities at talks in Istanbul in April 2022, but backed away, he said, once Russian troops withdrew from near Kyiv.