Moscow hints at new Ukraine invasion to stop Belgorod shells

RUSSIA has threatened a fresh invasion of north-eastern Ukraine as calls escalate for a “buffer zone” to stop attacks on the border city of Belgorod.

Dimitri Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said Russian forces would do “everything” to prevent further Ukrainian bombardment of the frontier region after a string of recent attacks which left scores dead.

His comments prompted demands from pro-war Russian ultra-nationalists for a large offensive to advance at least 15 kilometres (nine miles) into the Kharkiv region to push Ukrainian artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) out of range of Belgorod.

Kyiv’s forces have repeatedly struck the city, which sits 20 miles inside Russia, in retaliation for Moscow’s deadly bombardments on Ukraine in recent weeks. “Our military will continue to do everything to first minimise this danger and then completely get rid of it,” Mr Peskov told reporters this week.

His veiled threat came after The Telegraph reported last week that Ukraine was braced for a renewed offensive near Kharkiv as Russian forces stepped up bombardments on military targets in the city and the surrounding region.

There has been significant pressure on the Kremlin to launch a new assault on Ukraine’s second-largest city, which Russian forces have never occupied, amid wide-scale discontent over cross-border raids into Belgorod by pro-ukrainian Russian rebels.

Warrior Kitten, a pro-russian channel on the Telegram messaging app, said: “So, 15 kilometres will reduce shelling from MLRS, mortars and a number of cannon artillery, but nothing more. Therefore, we need a radically larger exclusion zone.”