Putin Says Russia Is Building a "Security Zone" Inside Ukraine and Won't Negotiate It

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia is establishing a "security zone" inside Ukrainian territory along the border, and that it will not be open to negotiation in any future talks with Kyiv. Speaking in military uniform during a visit to a command post, Putin described the move as a response to Ukraine's 2024–25 incursion into Russia's western Kursk region.

"The Russian armed forces were tasked not only with expelling the enemy from our land but also with establishing a security zone in the adjacent territory. This task is being carried out successfully," Putin said. He added that the aim is to guarantee the absolute security of Russia's border regions for the future and that Moscow does not plan to make the issue a subject of peace negotiations with Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the planned zone spans 660 km (410 miles), about 70% of which is already under Russian control. He did not say how far into Ukraine it would extend. Creating the zone requires Russia to take land in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, which Russia has not declared to be its own territory.

Attacks across Ukraine

Russian attacks killed at least eight people and injured 60 across Ukraine on Friday, hit two shopping centres, and left more than 1 million people without power after strikes on the energy grid. In Kharkiv, two people were killed and 12 wounded; two more died in Kramatorsk and two in the Dnipropetrovsk region. In the Volyn region, a drone strike on a food-processing facility killed one person and wounded eight, leaving 370,000 people temporarily without electricity.

A UN human rights office report from Kyiv said at least 328 civilians were killed and 2,105 wounded in September, 85% more than in September last year. Office head Danielle Bell said the first two weeks of October were among the deadliest periods for civilians in years.

Zelenskyy seeks European support

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met European leaders in Brussels on Friday and asked the EU for another €70bn next year to fund Ukraine's defence. He also said the Ukrainian military's access to the Starlink satellite internet service had not yet been fully restored; media reports suggested the order to throttle it came from within the White House. US President Donald Trump called Ukraine's renewed strikes on Russian oil refineries "a disgrace", after his purported "energy ceasefire" failed to take hold.