Oleg Zhdanov - about the “buffer zone”

in The Moscow Times (included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of foreign agents) Military expert Oleg Zhdanov writes :

“There is no new strategy in Vladimir Putin’s statement about the so-called “buffer zone”. This is not the first such change in the goals of the “special operation”. After “Kyiv in three days” (Polit.ru appeared) the intention was to seize the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and add to this a 150-kilometer “buffer security zone”. Now he doesn't say how wide this zone should be. This is the first one.

Second. Vladimir Putin does not specify where this “security zone” is on his map. Why? Because of the captured parts of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. The Russian Federation “included” these entire regions into its composition, and if you count from their borders, the result is obvious absurdity. And a casus belli at the same time - if suddenly it is possible to somehow agree on a truce (impossible).

To understand what Vladimir Putin says, I found a formula: 95% of his words are for internal use and only 5% for external use. He is now in an election battle with himself, he needs to get far ahead of himself - to create the illusion of democracy for the population. <…> That’s why he declares a “buffer” <…> in order to present at least some kind of victory.

And this is also an allusion to the famous words “everything is going according to plan.” What the plan is has never been clear (meaningless “denazification and demilitarization,” if you remember), but the “buffer zone” looks like something very serious and strategic. Otherwise, how can we dispel information that drones are flying over Moscow and hitting oil refining infrastructure?

In general, this is a way to cover up bad news before the election. And the bad news is that nothing is working out with Ukraine.”