Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to establish a buffer zone along the Ukrainian border. According to the Institute for the Study of War, this indicates plans by the Kremlin to illegally annex even more Ukrainian territory.
The Russian state press agency Tass reports on Telegram on Thursday that Putin has decided to create a buffer zone. It is unclear how long and large that buffer zone should be.
The Insitute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote on Wednesday about a possible buffer zone near Sumy. Putin spoke on Tuesday in the Russian border region of Kursk with local authorities about such a buffer zone. According to the American think tank, this indicates plans by the Kremlin to occupy the city of Sumy and illegally annex the region of the same name.
Putin reportedly asked Russian local politicians how large such a buffer zone should be. One of them said that the city of Sumy should “at least” belong to the zone, ISW reports.
The city is located approximately 25 kilometers from the internationally recognized border between Russia and Ukraine. A buffer zone that borders the city would be wide enough to prevent Ukrainian forces from carrying out drone attacks on Russian territory, among other things.
Russia Has Already Annexed Five Ukrainian Regions
During peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul last week, Western and Ukrainian sources warned that Russia planned to establish a “security zone.” Moscow would thus want to illegally annex the Sumy region, and then demand that Ukraine cede the area to Russia during peace negotiations.
So far, Russia has already illegally seized Ukrainian territory on several occasions. Since the war broke out in 2022, the eastern regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia have been illegally annexed. In 2014, Russia seized the Crimean peninsula.