Russia has no plans of capturing Ukraine's Kharkiv, forces creating 'buffer zone': Putin

Russia's PresidentVladimir Putinon Friday (May 17) said that their current plan does not include capturing the Ukrainian city ofKharkiv.

He added that the Russian forces, which have been operating close to Kharkhiv, have been creating a “buffer zone” for theirownsecurity and to protect Russian border regions.

While speaking at a press conference in China, Putin said that all of the military operations were going ahead as per plan.

Russia attacked Kharkiv to stop cross-border shelling: Putin

Putinsaid that a ground assault was launched by Russia into Ukraine's northeast to stop cross-border shelling.

On May 10, thousands of Russian troops launched artillery fire on various Ukrainian towns and villages and captured more than 200 square kilometres of land, which was the biggest advance made by the Russian Army in 18 months.

"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," said Putin, while speaking to the reporters in the Chinese city of Harbin.

"And I said publicly that if this continues, we will be forced to create a security zone," he said.

Speaking about Russia's plan to capture the city of Kharkiv, Putin said: "As for Kharkiv, there are no such plans as of today."

He added that he spoke about the Ukraine conflict with Chinese President Xi Jinping in an informal meeting, and appreciated the efforts of Beijing to end the conflict.

Watch:Russia-Ukraine war: Will Ukraine strike deeper into Russia?

"We have repeatedly said, we believe that China is sincerely seeking to resolve this problem, offers various options, andbehaves very flexibly," said the Russian president.

Russian forces further advance in Kharkiv

The area of active combat was expanded by the Russian forces by almost 70 km as they launched their offensive in theKharkivregion, confirmed Ukraine’s army chiefOleksandr Syrskyi on Friday (May 17).

Syrskyi said that Russia launched the offensive to force Ukraine to push additional reserve brigades into fighting.

He said that he expects fighting to intensify since Kyiv troops have also made preparations for defending the northern region of Sumy.

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(With inputs from agencies)