Vladimir Putin announced that Russia is establishing a 660 kilometre security zone inside Ukraine along the border and said the area will not be subject to any future peace negotiations. Speaking in military uniform at a command post, Putin framed the move as a response to Ukraine’s 2024-25 incursion into Russia’s Kursk region and said Russian forces were tasked with both expelling the enemy and creating the security zone. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said about 70 percent of the planned 660 kilometre zone is already under Russian control and did not specify how far it will extend inland. Creating the zone requires Russian forces to take territory in Ukraine’s Sumy and Kharkiv regions, areas Moscow has not declared as its own. The announcement comes as Russia continues wide-ranging strikes across Ukraine that officials say killed at least eight people and cut power to more than 1 million, including specific attacks in Kharkiv, Kramatorsk and Kherson. By declaring the zone non-negotiable, the Kremlin is signalling it will not cede any newly seized swaths of Sumy and Kharkiv in future talks and is likely to press military operations to consolidate control there.
