(Dan Tri) – Ukraine will not let Russia set up a buffer zone, instead, Kiev will set up a security buffer zone on Russian territory, a Ukrainian official announced.
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov (Photo: Getty).
Speaking on national television on March 20, Secretary of the National Security Council Oleksii Danilov said: `The buffer zone will be created, but not by Russia, but by the Ukrainian army and other countries.`
He added: `This buffer zone will be somewhere on the territory of cities like Moscow or a little further. We will definitely create this buffer zone.`
The above statement was made after Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this week that Moscow may have to set up a security buffer zone on Ukrainian territory to prevent cross-border attacks.
`At some point we deem it appropriate, we will create a certain security buffer zone on the territory that is still controlled by the Kiev government,` the Kremlin owner said.
Mr. Putin did not give details, but said that security buffer zone must be large enough to prevent foreign-made weapons from reaching Russian territory.
The US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in January that Moscow had recently increased its raids on Kharkov, northeastern Ukraine, in an effort to create a `security buffer zone` for the border city of Belgorod.
A Pravda source said that Russia is calling on the military to find a way to create a buffer zone up to 15km deep in Kharkov province (Ukraine), pushing Ukrainian firepower as far away from the Russian border city of Belgorod as possible.
Russia’s border regions, especially Belgorod and Kursk, have been continuously attacked since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out.
To date, Ukraine has affirmed that it does not use Western weapons to attack Russian territory, but Moscow still believes that Western long-range weapons were involved in those raids.
Meanwhile, Kiev warned that the idea of establishing a buffer zone is a sign that Russia intends to escalate hostilities.
`That statement shows that hostilities will only escalate. This is evidence that Russia is not ready to pursue modern political and social relations, which care about the absolute sovereignty of Russia.`
According to ISW, to establish a security buffer zone 15km deep and hundreds of kilometers wide, Russia will have to launch a large-scale campaign, requiring larger and better-equipped forces than those deployed at the border.
However, military analysts believe that it is difficult for Russia to conduct a campaign to control most of Kharkiv territory in the near future.
The Kharkiv region (or Kharkiv) of Ukraine is located close to the Russian border (Graphic: BBC).
