Putin says Russia’s "security zone" inside Ukraine will not be up for negotiation

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, 16 October, that Russia is establishing a “security zone” inside Ukraine along the two countries’ border and that it will not be part of any future negotiations with Kyiv, Reuters reported.

What Putin said

• Speaking in military uniform during a visit to a Joint Force command post, Putin presented the zone as a response to Ukraine’s 2024–25 incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
• “We do not plan to make this a subject for potential peace negotiations with Ukraine,” he said in televised remarks, describing the goal as “absolute security” for Russia’s border regions.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the planned zone stretches 660 km, about 70% of which Russian forces currently control; he did not say how deep it would reach.
• According to Reuters, Putin had not previously spelt out the zone’s extent or declared it off-limits for talks. It would require Russia to take land in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, which Moscow has not claimed as its own.
• Putin also said Russia had yet to capture just over 10% of Donetsk region and 16.5% of Zaporizhzhia region.

Disputed battlefield claims

Putin and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov cited large territorial gains this year. The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said these figures greatly exaggerate Russian progress and assessed that Russian forces have suffered a net loss of territory since 1 September. Ukraine’s Third Army Corps said this week it had retaken about 100 sq km more in Donetsk region.

The remarks came a week after a US–Russia diesel arrangement that has strained relations between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.