RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia set on creating ‘buffer zone’ in Ukraine – Putin

The Russian military has been tasked with creating a “security buffer zone” along the border with Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. 

The president made the remarks during a government meeting dedicated to the situation in Russia’s border regions, including Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk. Additional measures to support their residents were also discussed.

“It has been decided to create the necessary security buffer zone along the border. Our armed forces are actively solving this task now. The enemy’s firing positions are suppressed, the work is going on,” Putin stated.

The idea to create “a certain cordon sanitaire” in Ukrainian-controlled territory along the border was first floated by Putin last March. The president said Moscow could ultimately be “forced” to create such a zone in order to protect civilians in the border regions from Ukrainian long-range strikes. Russian troops would create 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 stated at the time.

Putin’s announcement comes in the wake of an indiscriminate Ukrainian strike on the Kursk town of Lgov that left at least 12 civilians wounded, including two children. According to interim Kursk Governor Aleksandr Khinshtein, the attack targeted an area near the Kursk-Rylsk highway where the route enters the town. Media reports indicated the strike involved at least three projectiles fired by a US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launcher.

Over the past two days, Kiev conducted a massive long-range drone attack even deeper into Russia. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, a total of 485 Ukrainian fixed-wing UAVs were downed across the country in the past 48 hours. At least 63 of the drones were intercepted in Moscow Region, while the largest number were stopped over Orel Region, the military said.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia says it downs at least 159 Ukrainian drones, fires Iskander missile

Russia said on Thursday it had shot down 159 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, including about 20 headed towards Moscow, as the war in Ukraine heated up despite major powers discussing ways to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two.

U.S. President Donald Trump is pressuring Russia and Ukraine to end the more than three-year war, but the two sides remain far apart. Ukraine and its Western allies are demanding an immediate and unconditional ceasefire but Russia says certain conditions must first be met. Kyiv says those conditions are unacceptable.

While leaders talk of the prospects for peace, the war is intensifying: swarms of drones are being launched by both sides while fierce fighting is underway along key parts of the front.

Russia's defence ministry said 159 drones had been shot down over Russian regions between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. (0500-1700 GMT) on Thursday. The previous day, Russia said it shot down well over 300 Ukrainian drones.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported late in the evening that 17 drones had been downed over the region surrounding Moscow, which has a population of 21 million. Sobyanin had earlier reported 40 downed drones overnight.

Three Moscow airports - Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky - suspended flights intermittently.

Separately, Russia said on Thursday it had fired an Iskander-M missile at part of the city of Pokrov, formerly known as Ordzhonikidze, in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, destroying two Patriot missile launchers and an AN/MPQ-65 radar set.

Ukraine's air force reported damage in the Dnipropetrovsk region after an attack but did not specify the type of weapon.

The governor of Russia's western Kursk region said a Ukrainian missile strike on the town of Lgov had wounded 16 people.

The Russia-installed governor of the occupied part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region said a Ukrainian strike had killed a woman and injured four children in a car.

RUSSIA REPORTS ADVANCES

Russia's defence ministry said its forces were advancing at key points along the front, and pro-Russian war bloggers said Russia had pierced Ukrainian lines between Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

The Russian defence ministry said its forces had captured the settlement of Nova Poltavka in between those two towns.

Ukraine's military made no such acknowledgement in a late evening report on the area but the popular DeepState war blog, which refers to open source reports, showed the settlement to be under Russian occupation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had said on Wednesday that the heaviest frontline battles were around Pokrovsk, but made no reference to any Russian advances.

Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine and says the territory is now formally part of Russia, a position Ukraine and its European allies do not accept.

Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014. Russian forces also control almost all of Luhansk and more than 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, according to Russian estimates. Russia also controls a sliver of the Kharkiv region.

RT/Reuters