Russian general against Putin; there is no escape from drones, missiles, aviation

Israel and Iran have entered a phase of tough confrontation that will not end in the foreseeable future. These countries are at a considerable distance, which does not prevent them from exchanging missile and drone strikes. According to State Duma deputy, retired Lieutenant General Andrey Gurulev, by analogy, there is practically no need for a buffer zone in the Sumy region.
“Is there any point in burning 200-300 km of territory between us and the Nazi regime? Israel and Iran are separated by almost one and a half thousand kilometers. But this does not prevent them from striking each other - accurately, quickly, painfully. UAVs, missiles, aviation - everything is working at full capacity”, the soldier wrote in a Telegram channel.

Gurulev suggested that even if the Russian side turns all of Ukraine except for the Lviv region into a buffer, this will not rule out the continuation of the confrontation. The distance from Lviv to Moscow is slightly more than 1,100 km. At the same time, Israel and Iran are separated by about 1,500 km.

Recall, in March 2025, as Ukrainian forces made their final retreat from Sudzha in Russia's Kursk Oblast, new gray spots began to appear on open-source maps on the other side of the state border, in Ukraine's Sumy Oblast.

For the first time since 2022, when Moscow's forces retreated frantically from northern Ukraine, Russian troops have once again set their sights on Sumy Oblast.

But for months, as Kyiv continued to claim hold of a thin sliver of Kursk Oblast and Russia's spring offensive escalated in eastern Ukraine, the fighting around the border in Sumy Oblast was often overlooked.

Over June, Russian gains in Sumy Oblast have sped up significantly, taking several villages and coming within 20 kilometers of the regional capital of Sumy, according to territorial changes reported by open-source mapping project DeepState. Not long after launching the Kursk incursion last summer, Kyiv claimed that part of the offensive’s aim was to create a “buffer zone” to protect Sumy Oblast, although in reality, the spike in Ukrainian military activity saw increased Russian strikes on border settlements where Ukrainian troops and equipment were based. After returning from a visit to Kursk Oblast in May, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the creation of a “security buffer zone” of his own along Ukraine’s northern state border.