Putin: Russia seeking to create ‘buffer zone’ near Kharkiv and has no plans to capture city ‘as of today’

Russia has no plans to capture Kharkiv “as of today,” President Vladimir Putin said Friday while on a visit to China. Speaking at a press conference in the city of Harbin, Putin claimed that Russian forces are conducting offensive operations in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region in order to create a “buffer zone” to prevent attacks on Russian border areas.

“As for what’s happening on the Kharkiv front. This is also [Ukraine’s] fault, because they have shelled and, unfortunately, continue to shell residential areas of the border territories, including Belgorod,” Putin said, as quoted by Interfax. “And I said publicly that if this continues, we will be forced to create a security zone, a buffer zone. This is what we’re doing.”

Asked if Russia intends to capture Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Putin claimed “there are no such plans as of today.”