{"id":4117,"date":"2025-12-31T19:10:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T20:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/?p=4117"},"modified":"2026-01-02T13:47:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T13:47:28","slug":"russian-forces-expanding-buffer-zone-in-ukraine-senior-commander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/31\/russian-forces-expanding-buffer-zone-in-ukraine-senior-commander\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian forces expanding buffer zone in Ukraine \u2013 senior commander"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov made the announcement while inspecting the \u2018Sever\u2019 (\u2018North\u2019) group of forces<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Russian military has been progressively pushing Ukrainian troops away from the border, expanding a buffer zone in Ukraine\u2019s Sumy and Kharkov Regions, the chief of Russia\u2019s General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, has stated.<\/p>\n<p>According to a press release published by Russia\u2019s Defense Ministry on Wednesday, Gerasimov made the announcement while inspecting the grouping of forces \u2018Sever\u2019 (\u2018North\u2019).<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe forces of the joint troop grouping are confidently moving deeper into the enemy\u2019s defenses,\u201d<\/em> with the offensive having reached a record pace in December, the senior commander said.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIn a month\u2019s time, more than 700 square kilometers of territory was liberated,\u201d<\/em> Gerasimov estimated.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n        <span><strong>Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<figure>\n            <img src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"RT\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6950607285f5406be46f9aab.png\"><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/russia\/630094-strategic-town-liberated-zaporozhye-putin\/\">Putin congratulates troops on liberating strategic town (VIDEO)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>After driving Ukrainian troops out of Russia\u2019s Kursk Region earlier this year, the troops of \u2018Sever\u2019 (\u2018North\u2019) began establishing a cordon sanitaire in the adjacent Ukrainian Sumy and Kharkov regions. According to Gerasimov, the Russian military has taken control of 32 localities there, with the city of Volchansk in Kharkov Region being the largest.<\/p>\n<p>Moscow\u2019s forces continued to extend the buffer zone in December at the order of President Vladimir Putin, the military chief noted.<\/p>\n<p>During his inspection, Gerasimov also decorated multiple service members with state awards and extended New Year\u2019s greetings to the troops, the Defense Ministry\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, the top general announced that another Ukrainian stronghold and a key logistical hub in Kharkov Region, the city of Kupyansk, was under full control of Russian forces. The ongoing operation to destroy lingering Ukrainian units, which are tactically encircled to the east of the town, is expected to be concluded by the end of February at the latest.<\/p>\n<p>Kiev, in turn, has rejected reports of the encirclement and dismissed Moscow\u2019s statements as inflated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov made the announcement while inspecting the \u2018Sever\u2019 (\u2018North\u2019) group of forces The Russian military [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4117"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4121,"href":"https:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117\/revisions\/4121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}