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The original was posted on /r/worldnews by /u/ragingexmachina on 2024-04-20 18:27:00.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov signals Putin's plan to seize Kharkiv and create a 'sanitary zone'
Submitted 2 years ago by bot@lemmit.online [bot] to worldnews@lemmit.online
https://www.businessinsider.com/sergey-lavrov-signals-russias-intent-seize-kharkiv-offensive-2024-4
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 2 years ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Moscow has already made it clear that it believes the only way to defend Russian territory is through such a buffer zone, which would put its settlements out of reach of Ukrainian fire.
Russia has ramped up its attack on Kharkiv in recent weeks, bombarding the city with missiles, guided bombs, and drones in what officials believe is an attempt to cut the city off from supplies and force the evacuation of civilians, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed officials.
In March, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, told Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform that he could not ignore reports about Russia’s plans to attack Kharkiv and that his troops were preparing for such an event.
The city has symbolic as well as strategic value for the Russian president, as it has a majority Russian-speaking population and was the first capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Russia lost nearly all of the territory it had gained in the wider Kharkiv region in 2022 after a rapid Ukrainian counterattack resulted in one of Ukraine’s most significant victories of the conflict.
During interviews with the radio stations Sputnik, Govorit Moskva, and Komsomolskaya Pravda, Lavrov also said that Russia was willing to negotiate with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy but that doing so would be “pointless for many reasons,” Russian news agency Tass reported.
The original article contains 444 words, the summary contains 222 words. Saved 50%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!