Moscow must make it impossible for Kiev to attack Russia with foreign-supplied long-range weapons, the president has said
In order to protect its people from Ukrainian strikes, Russia could “at some point” set up a buffer zone in Kiev-controlled territories, President Vladimir Putin told supporters, following the presidential election in which he is widely expected to win.
The ongoing “tragic events” in the border regions could eventually “force” Russia to “create a certain sanitary zone” in the areas still under Ukrainian control, Putin said early Monday morning.
The Russian forces would establish a “security zone that would be quite difficult for the adversary to overcome with its weapons, primarily of foreign origin,” if and “when we consider it appropriate,” Putin added.
Ukraine routinely launches artillery and drone strikes on Russian border regions, with many attacks targeting residential blocks, resulting in numerous civilian deaths. Last week, Ukrainian forces also attempted to breach the Russian border, attacking multiple locations along its frontier with Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions.
Kiev claimed that the operation was staged by the so-called Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and Russian Freedom Legion, paramilitary units linked to the country’s military intelligence agency. The units, which portray themselves as collaborator forces composed of Russian defectors, as well as fugitive neo-Nazis, are designated by Moscow as terrorist organizations. The Russian Defense Ministry has described the attempted raids as a total failure, saying that the attacking forces lost over 1,500 soldiers and dozens of armored vehicles.
In late January, Putin already proposed setting up a large “demilitarized zone” in Ukraine to prevent long-range attacks on Russian territory. His comments came after two Ukrainian bombardments of Belgorod and Donetsk that killed more than 50 people.
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