Ukraine braced for ‘heavy battles’ as Putin says Russia carving out Kharkiv buffer zone

KYIV - Ukraine's top commander warned on May 17 of "heavy battles" looming on the war's new front in the north-eastern Kharkiv region as Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was carving out a "buffer zone" in the area.

Russian forces attacked the Kharkiv region's north on May 10, making inroads of up to 10km and unbalancing Kyiv's outnumbered troops who are

trying to hold the line

over a sprawling front nearly 27 months since the full-scale invasion.

Ukraine’s Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi said the attack had expanded the area of hostilities by around 70km and that Russia had launched its incursion ahead of schedule when “it noticed the deployment of our forces”.

"We understand there will be heavy battles and that the enemy is preparing for that," the head of the Ukrainian armed forces wrote in a statement on the Telegram app.

Speaking during a state visit to China, Mr Putin said Moscow’s forces were creating a “buffer zone” in Ukraine’s north-east to protect Russian border regions, but that capturing the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest, was not part of the current plan.

The Russian leader told a news conference the assault was a response to Kyiv's shelling of Russian border regions such as Belgorod.

"Civilians are dying there. It's obvious. They are shooting directly at the city centre, at residential areas. And I said publicly that if this continues, we will be forced to create a security zone, a buffer zone. That is what we are doing," Mr Putin said.

Russian forces were able to advance 10km in one place, but Ukrainian forces have "stabilised" the front, President Volodymyr Zelensky told Ukrainian media outlets in comments published on May 17.

Heaviest assaults in east

Moscow's forces are mounting their heaviest assaults in the eastern Donetsk region, according to data compiled by the Ukrainian General Staff, which said the eastern Pokrovsk front had faced the most regular assaults in recent days.

In his comments, Col-Gen Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces were preparing their defensive lines for a possible new Russian assault on the Sumy region, which would mark another front more than 100km to the north of Kharkiv.

Kyiv has warned that Russia has small units of forces near the Sumy region.

Mr Volodymyr Artiukh, head of the Sumy region's military administration, said Russian military activity along the northern Ukrainian region was at a high level.

"We note that the actions (of Russian forces) are systematic. Shelling continues, in fact, along the entire border, with an intensity of 200 to 400 explosions per day... The intensity of enemy sabotage groups has increased," he said. REUTERS