Ukraine urges Russia to accept ‘just peace’ amid incursion

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine said on Tuesday it would not hold on to Russian territory captured in its surprise cross-border incursion and offered to stop raids if Moscow agreed a “just peace”.

Ukrainian forces entered Russia´s Kursk region last Tuesday, taking over two dozen settlements in the biggest attack by a foreign army on Russian soil since World War II.

More than 120,000 people have fled the area and Ukraine´s military chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Monday that his troops controlled about 1,000 square kilometres of Russian territory.

An AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War gave a lower figure of at least 800 square kilometres under Ukrainian control.

Foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy on Tuesday said Kyiv was not interested in “taking over” Russian territory and defended Ukraine´s actions as “absolutely legitimate”.

“The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace... the sooner the raids by the Ukrainian defences forces into Russia will stop,” he told reporters.