Russia wants to establish a buffer zone in the Vinnytsia region — Presidential Office
Palis revealed this in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.
According to the brigadier general, the Russian army also plans to establish buffer zones in the Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions.
Palisa said that in 2026, the Russians’ main focus will be on the Donbas and, if conditions are favourable, on the Oleksandrivka and Zaporizhzhia sectors.
He also emphasised that the Russian military has not abandoned the idea of capturing Zaporizhzhia, the Kherson region, and, in the future, the Mykolaiv and Odesa regions.
Buffer zones in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war: what is known
On 5 April 2026, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi said that the Russians also want to create a buffer zone in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
US President Donald Trump’s Special Representative Keith Kellogg said in May 2025 that Ukraine had also proposed creating a 30-kilometre demilitarised zone around the front line. However, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy replied at the time that this idea was already “dead in the water”, as it was unclear where to draw the line, and a 15-kilometre withdrawal could lead to the loss of Kherson.
In contrast to Russian plans, Ukraine’s European allies discussed their own version of a buffer zone. This involved a 40-kilometre buffer zone between Russian and Ukrainian positions as part of a peace agreement. However, some countries feared at the time that a buffer zone would merely leave the area vulnerable to a renewed invasion or fresh attacks on Ukrainian cities.
