Russia Wants Postwar Ukraine Turned Into ‘Buffer Zone,’ Lavrov Says

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called for Ukraine to be turned into a giant “buffer zone” after the fighting ends, as Moscow continues to signal demands that could undermine renewed US-led efforts to revive peace talks. Speaking on Russian state television on Tuesday, Sept. 8, Lavrov said Ukraine should become the buffer Moscow claims it needs to prevent future threats from its western neighbor.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “Everyone argues that Russia needs a ‘buffer zone.’ Let Ukraine become this buffer,” Lavrov said, according to Russia’s foreign ministry. In July, Bloomberg reported that the Kremlin no longer planned to return any occupied Ukrainian territory as part of a future peace deal. Instead, Russian President Vladimir Putin intended to keep occupied areas of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions as permanent buffer zones while continuing his push to seize all of the Donetsk region, according to three people familiar with the Kremlin’s thinking. That would mark a significant shift from earlier informal proposals in which Russia was reportedly prepared to return occupied parts of Sumy and Kharkiv in exchange for Ukraine ceding the remainder of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Lavrov was asked how Moscow could guarantee that the war would not resume in 25 years. He responded by arguing that Ukraine could not be allowed to retain what he called a “Russophobic, aggressive, neo-Nazi regime” that threatens Russia. Other Topics of Interest Ukraine Unveils New Air Defense Missile to Replace Soviet Osa-AKM Stocks The RK-19 missile, developed by Ukraine’s state defense industry, is designed to replace the Soviet 9M33-series missiles currently used by Ukraine’s Osa-AKM air defense systems, The remarks came as US special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday before traveling to Kyiv on Sunday, but the diplomatic effort failed to produce significant progress. Lavrov also said Russia would not accept an outcome in which the “regime ruling in Kyiv” remained in power after the war. He claimed such a government would continue violating “human rights, language rights, and the right to choose one’s religion.” The Kremlin has pushed the idea of a “buffer zone” along Ukraine’s border with Russia for years. Russian President Vladimir Putin first publicly raised the concept in 2023 and has since repeatedly claimed that Russian forces need to expand such a zone to protect Russian border regions. The comments also echo broader Russian territorial ambitions. Sources close to the Kremlin told The Moscow Times in March 2025 that Moscow was considering seizing additional Ukrainian territory, including parts of the Dnipropetrovsk or Sumy regions, before potentially offering it in an exchange for Ukrainian-held parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Lavrov has meanwhile rejected the idea that Russia is currently engaged in meaningful peace negotiations. In a separate interview on Tuesday, Sept. 8, he said Moscow would continue fighting until the West makes concessions, accusing Ukraine’s Western supporters of repeatedly preventing a peace deal. He also dismissed new Western proposals on Ukraine, saying Western countries should not “fuss” over their “new ideas.” The comments underscore the gap between Washington’s push to restart diplomacy and Moscow’s continued demands for a postwar Ukraine constrained by Russian security and political conditions. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.