The Kremlin has pronounced that the creation of a “buffer zone” is necessary to protect Russian territory from Ukrainian attacks.
Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov noted in a call with reporters, “Against the backdrop of (Ukrainian) drone attacks and the shelling of our territory: public facilities, residential buildings, measures must be taken to secure these territories.”
“They can only be secured by creating some kind of buffer zone so that any means that the enemy uses to strike us are out of range,” he added.
This came as two people were killed and four more injured in Ukrainian shelling of the village of Nikolskoye in Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine.
Attacks on Belgorod have taken place frequently since 2022 but escalated in the run-up to Russia’s presidential election which concluded on Sunday, March 17, 2024.
Putin did not rule out setting up such a buffer zone after winning the just ended election, which has been widely condemned as illegitimate.
“I do not exclude that, bearing in mind the tragic events taking place today, that we will be forced at some point, when we deem it appropriate, to create a certain ‘sanitary zone’ in the territories today under the Kyiv regime,” Putin said.
The Russian President opined that such a zone might have to be big enough to stop foreign-made weapons striking Russian territory.
Meanwhile, Veronika Plotnikova, the head of the coordinating centre for support of victims and witnesses of the prosecutor general’s office, disclosed that Ukraine has collected pretrial information on over 128,000 victims of war crimes.
War crimes include acts such as deliberate attacks on civilians, attacks on cultural sites or medical institutions, torture and deportations.
Plotnikova averred, “We see our function as being a bridge between the victims and those who provide help.”
“We are creating an ecosystem of support because no government body, no organisation can provide for so many victims,” she added.
“Putin Has To Be Stopped”
Latvian Minister Krisjanis Kariņs said, “Russia will not stop, they can only be stopped.”
The Minister added that Ukraine is prepared to do the stopping but “they need our assistance.”
Kariņs praised Emmanuel Macron for inserting “strategic ambiguity” into the EU’s response by suggesting European troops could be deployed in Ukraine.
“France sees the urgency we in the Baltics have had for the past two years,” Kariņs noted.
Also on Monday, a number of European Council members urged for more support for Ukraine.
They said in a letter that the EU must increase its security and defensive capabilities in the face of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine.
Finland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Sweden were the signatories to the joint letter, which stresses the importance of the EU’s defence industry to wider European security.
The letter read, “Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine has brought rapid, profound and long- lasting changes to the European security environment.”
“We must continue to provide strong political, economic and military support to Ukraine for as long as necessary and the EU must increase its strength and capabilities in security and defence,” the countries urged.
“In the coming months, we will be setting the EU’s future strategic priorities amongst which, the security and defence sector will be one of the main issues,” the letter revealed.
According to the countries, the European Investment Bank (EIB), which functions as a lending arm to the EU and plays a key role in investment financing in Europe, needs to be empowered to invest in defence-related initiatives beyond existing dual-use projects.
“This would mean discussing and re- evaluating current definitions of dual-use projects and the list of excluded activities as well as reconsidering its defence industry lending policy and other restrictive elements,” the letter stressed.
It added, “We stress the importance of discussing this matter in a manner, which takes into account the impact on EIB’s risk profile and that safeguards EIBs financing basis.”
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