MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/. The buffer zone in Ukraine could potentially include Kiev depending on the West’s supplies of long-range weapons, State Duma member Viktor Vodolatsky told reporters.

In mid-March, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would have to reconsider setting up "a buffer zone" in Ukraine if the West gave Kiev permission to use long-range weapons to strike Russian territory.

"The [size of the] buffer zone will depend on our Western adversaries. The more lethal weapons with a range of more than 200-300 km they send, or should these include the latest heavy missiles [with a range of] 500 km, a 500 km wide buffer zone would have to be established, so that missiles don’t hit Russian soil," the lawmaker explained. As the distance between Lugansk and Kiev stands at 482 km, the buffer zone should include Kiev, he added.

Earlier, the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, told TASS that a buffer zone should be established to protect Russian regions, eliminating the risk of provocations by the Ukrainian armed forces.