Ukraine says it controls 74 Kursk settlements, urges Russia to accept ‘just peace’
- Kyiv says it will not hold on to Russian territory captured in its surprise cross-border operation
Ukraine now controls 74 settlements in Russia’s Kursk border region, the country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday.
The governor of the Kursk region, where Ukraine is mounting a week-long incursion, previously said on Monday that Ukraine controls 28 settlements.
“There are 74 settlements under the control of Ukraine,” Zelensky said in his evening address.
Ukraine had said earlier on Tuesday that 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”.
The president said that “despite difficult, intense fighting, the advance of our forces in the Kursk region continues”.
Zelensky said that Ukraine has been able to “replenish” its numbers of Russian POWs to exchange for its own troops and “preparation for our next steps continues”.