Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has claimed that Moscow has no plans to capture Kharkiv City and that the ground assault into the region was intended to stop Ukrainian cross-border shelling.
“As for what is happening on the Kharkiv front, this is their fault, because they have shelled and continue to shell residential neighbourhoods in border areas, including Belgorod” Putin told Russian reporters on a visit to China.
Putin said that his forces advancing in the Kharkiv region are creating a “buffer zone” to protect Russian border regions.
“Civilians are dying there. It’s obvious. They are shooting directly at the city centre, at residential areas. And I said publicly that if this continues, we will be forced to create a security zone, a buffer zone. That is what we are doing.”
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, today conceded that Moscow’s forces have managed to advance six miles deep in one area of Kharkiv. The army’s commander in chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Moscow’s week-long operation has expanded the active area of fighting by almost 43 miles.
When asked if Russian forces planned to take control of nearby Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city, Putin said:
“As for Kharkiv, there are no such plans as of today.”