KYIV, Ukraine -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday during a visit to China that Moscow's offensive in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region aims to create a buffer zone but that there are no plans to capture the city.
The remarks were Putin's first on the offensive launched May 10, which opened a new front and displaced thousands of Ukrainians within days. Earlier Friday, a massive Ukrainian drone attack on the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula cut off power in the city of Sevastopol, after an earlier attack damaged aircraft and fuel storage at an airbase.
In southern Russia, Russian authorities said a refinery was also set ablaze.
Moscow launched attacks in the Kharkiv region in response to Ukrainian shelling of Russia's Belgorod region, Putin told reporters while visiting the Chinese city of Harbin.
"I have said publicly that if it continues, we will be forced to create a security zone, a sanitary zone," he said. "That's what we are doing." Russian troops were "advancing daily according to plan," he said and added there were no plans for now to take the city of Kharkiv.
Ukrainian troops are fighting to halt Russian advances in the Kharkiv region that began late last week. In an effort to increase troop numbers, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed two laws Friday, allowing prisoners to join the army and increasing fines for draft dodgers fivefold. The controversial mobilization law goes into effect on Saturday.
Russia enlisted prisoners early on in the war, and personnel shortages compelled the new measures. The legislation allows for "parole from serving a sentence and further enlistment for military service" for a specific period for some people charged with criminal offences. It doesn't extend to those convicted of crimes against Ukraine's national security.
Penalties will be increased to $650 for citizens and $1,300 for civil servants and legal entities for ignoring draft notices or failing to update the draft board of their information. Fines were previously $130 for citizens and $215 for civil servants and legal entities.
Ukrainian authorities have evacuated around 8,000 civilians from the recent flashpoint town of Vovchansk, 3 miles from the Russian border. The Russian army's usual tactic is to reduce towns and villages to ruins with aerial strikes before troops move in.
At least two people were killed and 19 were wounded in the Russian bombing of Kharkiv, regional chief Oleh Syniehubov said on his Telegram posting on Friday. Four of the wounded were in critical condition.
Russia's new offensive has "expanded the zone of active hostilities by almost (45 miles)" in an effort to force Ukraine to spread its forces and use reserve troops, Ukraine's military chief, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Friday.
In the Kharkiv region, Russian forces have advanced 6 miles from the border, Zelenskyy said Friday.
Separately, speaking about Ukraine's upcoming peace conferences in Switzerland next month, Putin said it was a vain attempt to enforce terms of a peaceful settlement on Russia and stressed that Russia wasn't invited to the meeting.
He said that Russia was ready for talks but shrugged off Zelenskyy's peace formula as wishful thinking. Any prospective peace talks should be based on a draft deal negotiated by Russia and Ukraine during their Istanbul talks in 2022, he said.
Ukraine meanwhile carried out drone raids on Crimea in an attempt to strike back during Moscow's offensive in northeastern Ukraine, which has piled on pressure on outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces awaiting delayed deliveries of crucial weapons and ammunition from Western partners.
A Ukrainian intelligence official confirmed to The Associated Press that the country's intelligence services struck Russia's military infrastructure sites in Novorossiysk, on the Black Sea coast, and in the Russian-occupied city of Sevastopol. The official was not authorized to make public comments and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The operation, carried out by Ukraine-built drones, targeted Russian Black Sea Fleet vessels, the official said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 51 Ukrainian drones over Crimea, 44 over the Krasnodar region of Russia and six over the Belgorod region. Russian warplanes and patrol boats also destroyed six sea drones in the Black Sea, it said.
At least three fighter jets were destroyed in an earlier attack in Crimea a few days ago, according to satellite imagery of the airbase provided by Maxar Technologies.