Battles in Dnipropetrovsk region tied to Kremlin’s plan for 'buffer zones' - expert

Vladyslav Selezniov, Ukrainian Armed Forces Reserve Colonel and military expert, said this on Espreso TV.

“Back in May last year, the Kremlin dictator Putin set a clear task for his own army — to create so‑called "buffer zones" on those territories of our country that border the Russian Federation. At that time it concerned the territories of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions. But if we look at the new version of the Russian constitution, according to which the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, are considered part of the Russian Federation — at least that is what Putin and his entourage dream about,” Selezniov said.

The military expert says that, by Russia’s logic, Moscow aims to set up “sanitary zones” in regions bordering Ukrainian territory it claims as its own. That makes the fighting in the Dnipropetrovsk region clearly deliberate, not accidental.

“The enemy will try to press our lines and positions, and in the long run — onto the territory of the Mykolaiv, and possibly Odesa region. But whatever they fantasize about, the key factor that affects the overall situation is the resilience of the Ukrainian army. And that depends directly on the resource support from both Ukraine’s defense industry and our Western partners,” Selezniov emphasized.

• On September 3, 180 combat engagements were recorded on the Russian‑Ukrainian front. In the Pokrovsk direction, the Ukrainian Defense Forces stopped 55 assault actions by the aggressor.