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 to 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. Russia said on Tuesday it had fended off new attacks in Kursk.
More than 120,000 people have fled the area and Ukraine’s military chief Oleksandr Syrsky said on Monday that his troops controlled about 1,000 square kilometers of Russian territory.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy said on Tuesday that 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.
‘I Saw a Lot of Death’
Ukraine’s offensive was the biggest cross-border action since the invasion, and it caught Russia off guard.
“They didn’t protect the border,” a Ukrainian serviceman who took part in the offensive and identified himself as Ruzhyk told AFP in Sumy region.
A 27-year-old squad leader, who identified himself as Faraon, was direct in his description of battles in Kursk. “I saw a lot of death in the first few days. It was terrifying at first but then we got used to it,” he told AFP.
Ukrainian military analyst Mykola Bielieskov told AFP, “Russia assumed that since it had initiative elsewhere, Ukraine wouldn’t dare to do things we’ve seen,” he said, referring to months of Russian advances along the front.
ISW (Institute for the Study of War) figures also showed that Russian troops had captured 1,360 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory since the start of 2024.
‘Sow Discord’
Putin told a televised meeting with officials on Monday that “one of the obvious goals of the enemy is to sow discord” and “destroy the unity and cohesion of Russian society.”
Russia had conceded earlier that Ukrainian forces had penetrated up to 30 kilometers (20 miles) into Russian territory in places.
A Ukrainian security official told AFP during the weekend, on condition of anonymity, that Ukraine sought to “stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilise the situation in Russia as they are unable to protect their own border.”
The Ukrainian official said thousands of Ukrainian troops were involved in the operation.
Ania Tsoukanova and Jonathan Brown, with AFP
