Russia aims to push 10 km into Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region – Ukraine intel chief
Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's Defense Intelligence (Getty Images)
Russian forces have a political goal to claim they have entered Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region. To achieve this, they have been tasked with creating a buffer zone up to 10 kilometers deep, according to Kyrylo Budanov, Head of Ukraine's Defense Intelligence, in an interview with Bloomberg.
"It's not realistic for Russia to seize all of the Donetsk region by the end of the year," Budanov said.
According to him, Russian forces have a political objective to claim they have entered Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, and have therefore been tasked with creating another buffer zone up to 10 kilometers deep.
Alleged Russian "offensive" toward Dnipropetrovsk region
Russia has repeatedly claimed advances into Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region.
Back in May 2025, Moscow reported that Russian forces had allegedly crossed the administrative border from Donetsk near the village of Novomykolaivka. At the time, Serhii Lysak, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Administration, dismissed the claim as another fake aimed at destabilization.
In June, Russian officials once again spoke of an "offensive" toward Dnipropetrovsk, stating that a buffer zone was being established. Ukrainian authorities denied the reports.
Mapping data from DeepState also does not confirm any presence of Russian troops at the administrative border of the region.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed that current Russian activity near the border is a continuation of offensive operations in southwestern Donetsk, rather than the start of a new large-scale effort to capture strategically significant territory in Dnipropetrovsk.
