Putin says Russia is creating a security zone in Ukraine along aggressor state’s border — The Guardian

Russian Federation President — of the aggressor state — Vladimir Putin said that Russia is creating a so-called security zone in Ukraine along the border and does not plan to discuss it during possible peace negotiations with Kyiv. The Guardian reports.

During a visit to a command post, Putin said the operation had been launched in response to Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in 2024–2025. According to him, Russian troops were tasked not only with pushing Ukrainian forces out of Russian territory but also with creating a security zone in adjacent Ukrainian territory.

Kremlin statements about the zone

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the planned zone would stretch for 660 kilometers and that Russia allegedly already controls 70% of its territory. He did not specify how far into Ukraine the zone was to extend.

As the publication notes, implementing such a plan would require the seizure of territories in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions. Russia has not made illegal claims to these regions as its own territory.

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Consequences of Russian attacks

According to Ukrainian officials, Russian attacks in Ukraine on Friday killed at least eight people and injured another 60. The strikes also hit two shopping centers and left more than one million people without electricity following attacks on energy infrastructure.

In Kharkiv, attacks on three districts killed two people and injured another 12. Later strikes in the city injured nine more people. Two people each were killed in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, and in the southeast of Dnipropetrovsk region.

In Volyn, a drone strike on a food industry enterprise killed one person and injured eight. According to local authorities, about 370,000 people were temporarily left without electricity. Drones also attacked a customs terminal in Kovel and set fire to about 10 trucks.

The UN Human Rights Office in Kyiv reported that at least 328 civilians were killed and another 2,105 injured as a result of Russia’s invasion last month. This is 85% higher than in September of the previous year.