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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has suggested that Russia intends to occupy the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine. Lavrov is the first senior official to identify the city as a possible target.
During a radio interview, Lavrov said Ukraine's second-largest city has "an important role" in Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to create a demilitarized "sanitary zone" that will serve to protect the regions Russian border from Ukrainian attacks.
Moscow has already made it clear that it believes the only way to protect Russian territory is through the creation of such a zone, which would place its settlements beyond the reach of Ukrainian fire.
"In the background of drone attacks and shelling of our territory: public facilities, residential buildings, etc. measures must be taken to secure these territories. They can only be secured by creating a kind of buffer zone, so that any means that the enemy uses to hit us to be out of range," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had warned earlier.
Russia has intensified its attacks on Kharkiv in recent weeks, bombarding the city with rockets, bombs and drones. Officials believe this is an attempt to cut off supplies to the city and force the evacuation of civilians.
Putin has wanted to take Kharkiv since the invasion began in February 2022.
The city has symbolic and strategic value for the Russian president, as it has a majority Russian-speaking population and was the first capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
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