Russia wants to create demilitarized buffer zones inside Ukraine around areas it has annexed, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, stressing that it may be necessary to push deeper into Ukraine if such zones cannot be established.
Medvedev said Russia needs demilitarized corridors around areas it claims - over which Ukraine says it will never accept Russian control, Reuters reports.
"We have to achieve all the goals that have been set to protect our territories, that is, the territories of the Russian Federation," said Medvedev, who is the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, in an interview with Russian media published on Telegram.
We have to "kick out all the foreigners who are there in the broadest sense of the word, create a buffer zone that will not allow the use of any weapons that operate at medium and short distances, that is, 70-100 kilometers," said Medvedev.
Russia would have to push further into Ukraine if such zones are not established, Medvedev said, saying they could take Kiev or even the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, while Ukraine says it will never accept a Russian occupation of its country.
The Ministry of Defense of Russia announced that the use of grenades with depleted uranium in Ukraine would cause damage to Ukrainian troops, the wider population and negatively affect the country's agricultural sector, the Interfax agency reported, citing Reuters.
Russia has responded to plans outlined by Great Britain earlier this week to send shells containing depleted uranium to Ukraine.
London says it is a conventional form of ammunition, while Russian President Vladimir Putin said the move showed NATO members were sending weapons with a "nuclear component" to Kiev.
At least five people were killed in a Russian attack in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, while one person was killed in an attack in the south of the country, local authorities announced today.
"Three women and two men were killed" in the town of Kostyantinivka, about 20 kilometers west of Bakhmut, the epicenter of the fighting with the Russian army, the Ukrainian emergency service announced on Telegram.
In the attack on the night between Thursday and Friday, the building that houses the humanitarian reception center in that city was hit.
This morning, one woman was killed and four civilians were injured in the artillery fire in the village of Bilozerka in the Kherson region, in the south of Ukraine, the prosecutor's office announced.
Houses, power lines and gas pipelines were damaged in the bombing.
In the Russian attack on the center for humanitarian support in the city of Kostiantynivka, in the east of Ukraine, five people were killed, the Ukrainian emergency service announced, reports Radio Free Europe (RSE).
"The town of Kostjantinivka was under rocket fire during the night of March 24. One of the rockets hit a one-story building," the emergency service said on Telegram, reports AFP.
The Russian army, if necessary, can reach Kiev or Lviv in the west of Ukraine, former President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Russian news agencies.
"Nothing is excluded. If you need to get to Kiev, then you need to go to Kiev, if you need to get to Lviv, then you need to go to Lviv to destroy this infection," Medvedev said, RIA Novosti reported Reuters.
The war in Ukraine entered its 392nd day.
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