Ukraine recognizes as Japanese territory islands also claimed by RussiaKyiv urges international community to take steps to legally formalize status of Kuril Islands as Japanese territoryKYIV, UkraineTwo islands in the Kuril Islands chain, disputed between Russia and Japan since World War II, were accepted on Friday by the Ukrainian Parliament as Japanese territory.The decision on the Habomai and Shikotan Islands followed a debate in the parliament of Ukraine, which currently faces a war by Russia that has tried to claim Ukrainian territory as its own, including through recent widely condemned referendums.A statement by Ukraine's parliament also called on the international community to take "all possible measures" to legally formalize the status of the islands, known in Japanese as the Northern Territories.While the efforts of late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to solve the problem were promising, Russia's illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 – seen by many as a prelude to the current war – made progress more difficult.Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form."