RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin said today that Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region aims to create a buffer zone, but has no plans to capture the city.

Mr Putin’s comments on a trip to China were his first on the offensive launched on May 10, which opened a new front in the war and displaced thousands of Ukrainians within a few days.

It came hours after a massive Ukrainian drone attack on the Crimean peninsula, annexed to Russia in 2014, early today caused power outages in the city of Sevastopol while damaging aircraft and fuel storage at an airbase.