Map Shows Putin's "Buffer Zone" Swallowing Most of Ukraine

Covers practically all of Ukraine except for a tiny sliver...

This article originally appeared on ZeroHedge and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Tyler Durden

If there's a 'good cop, bad cop' routine happening at the Kremlin, mostly assuredly the role of bad cop always falls to Russia's former president, Dmitry Medvedev.

In his maximalist and hyperbolic threats, he can be seen as the "John Bolton of the Kremlin". It is most often this top official who warns that Russia could go nuclear if red lines are crossed in Ukraine. But certainly his statements are calculated and approved by the Kremlin.

The current deputy chairman of the country's Security Council has once again issued a hardline threat aimed at Ukraine and its Western backers, warning that President Putin's newly ordered buffer zone in Ukraine could extend over almost the the whole of the country.

"If military aid to the Banderite regime continues, the buffer zone could look like this," Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel on Sunday.

He issued a map of the envisioned zone, covering practically all of Ukraine.

View his automated map below:

A tiny sliver of what could pass for Ukrainian territory was left along the Polish border.

He cited that Western long-range weapons might make this necessary, though Putin has never articulated or affirmed any plan to take over the whole of Ukraine. From a strategic perspective, occupying the whole country would be a nightmare for Moscow forces - on the manpower, economic, logistical, and political blowback fronts.

Still, Medvedev wrote in reference to the reach of NATO-supplied weapons, "In other words, Russia must be present there: 550 km plus another 70 to 100 km just to be safe."

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