Putin Claims He Does Not Want A Ukrainian City He Has Lost 1500 Troops Fighting For

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he has no interest in Kharkiv – but has still lost more than 1,500 troops fighting for the Ukrainian region. Contributor via Getty Images

Vladimir Putin claims he does not want to seize the Kharkiv region even as his losses in the ongoing offensive continue to rise.

As he left China last week, the Russian president said, “there are no such plans today,” for Moscow to seize Ukraine’s second-largest city – despite launching an offensive in Kharkiv last week.

Putin claimed that his Russian troops are just looking to establish a “security zone” around the border, to protect the Russian city of Belgorod which has been targeted by Ukraine’s armed forces.

Ukraine’s Kharkiv is about 30km from the border with Russia, and Belgorod around 40km on the other side.

Putin claiming Ukraine was “firing right on the city centre on the residential areas” in Belgorod, adding: “And I had said publicly if this continued, we would be forced to create a security zone – a sanitary zone. That is what we are doing.”

Ukraine has not responded to this claim, but it has previously said it is aiming at legitimate military targets in the area, like oil refineries.

But, despite these claims, Russian losses are mounting in the offensive.

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 1,572 soldiers have been lost in the last week after thousands of Russian troops stormed the border into Kharkiv last week.

This takes Russia’s total personnel losses since the war began to 493,690, according to Ukraine.

Kyiv estimates Moscow has also lost 7,590 tanks, 14,665 armoured fighting vehicles, 17,311 non-fighting vehicles and fuel tanks, 12,737 artillery systems and much more – including 10,236 drones.

Moscow did not respond to these new figures.