President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had moved into Russia’s Kursk region to create a buffer zone to prevent further cross-border attacks from Moscow.
It was the first time that the Ukrainian president had clearly stated the objectives of the operation, which began on August 6. He had previously suggested that the purpose of the operation was to protect communities in the border region of Sumy from incessant shelling.
“Our main task now in the overall defensive operation is to destroy as much of Russia’s war-fighting capabilities as possible and to carry out maximum counter-offensive action. This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory, that is, our operations in the Kursk region,” Zelensky said in a speech on Sunday night.
Kiev has previously said little about the objectives of its incursion of tanks and other armored vehicles into Russia, its biggest attack on Russia since World War Two, which took the Kremlin by surprise and resulted in the loss of dozens of villages and hundreds of prisoners to Ukrainian hands.
Ukrainian forces have advanced deep into the region from several directions, meeting little resistance and causing confusion and panic, forcing tens of thousands of civilians to flee.
Ukrainian commander-in-chief, Gen. Oleksandr Shirsky, claimed last week that his forces had advanced across 1,000 square kilometers (390 square miles) of the region, but it was not possible to independently verify how much territory Ukrainian forces actually control.
In his remarks on the establishment of the buffer zone, Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had “achieved good and much-needed results.”
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a visit to China in May that Moscow’s attack on the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine that month was aimed at creating a buffer zone there.
The attack opened a new front and forced the evacuation of thousands of Ukrainians. Putin said the attack was in retaliation for Ukrainian shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region. “I have said publicly that if the shelling continues, we will be forced to create safety zones, sanitary zones,” he said. “And that’s what we are doing.”
