Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow plans to create a buffer zone to protect against long-range Ukrainian strikes and cross-border raids, Russian media reported.
The Kremlin leader did not give details but claimed the buffer zone should be large enough to stop strikes on Russian territory, which he said were carried out with foreign-made weapons.
At the press event, the Russian president lamented that border regions are under attack from Ukraine. While he said Russians in the regions are “showing courage,” he discussed the possibility of a buffer zone to cement protections. Putin said, according to comments shared by state-run media channels:
“I do not rule out that Russia will be forced to create a sanitary zone in the territories controlled by the Kyiv regime.”
Ukraine has previously said it only uses its own weapons to strike Russian territory. Some of its key allies, such as the US, have provided weapons on the condition that they not be used on Russia.
Last week, Kyiv stepped up long-range drone strikes on Russian territory, while paramilitary groups have also staged cross-border attacks from Ukraine to western Russia. Ukraine has also launched regular artillery strikes on the border region of Belgorod.
Russian troops are making gains on the battlefield, while Kyiv’s forces are struggling with a severe shortage of artillery shells and depleted forward units after more than two years of war. The front line stretches more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) across eastern and southern Ukraine.
