Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed decrees to annex four regions of Ukraine, after staging referendums that were widely denounced as illegal under international law. In a grand ceremony in the Kremlin on Friday, he said in a speech that Russia would formally incorporated Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – and that people living there would “be our citizens forever.”
In Zaporizhzhia, even as Russia moved to annex the regions, suspected Russian missiles struck a civilian convoy killed at least 25 people early Friday, Ukrainian officials said. With roughly a quarter of Zaporizhzhia still in Kyiv’s hands, including the city of the same name, Russia’s grip on the region remains tenuous.
Putin signed two decrees late Thursday recognizing occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as “independent” territories, which he has already done for the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.
The United States and its allies, which condemned the referendums as a “sham,” plan to increase diplomatic, economic and military pressure. “The United States will never, never, never recognize Russia’s claims on Ukraine sovereign territory,” President Biden said.
On the battlefield, Russian forces could be nearly encircled by the Ukrainian military in the key eastern city Lyman, a supply hub on the western edge of Ukraine’s Donbas region, according to pro-Russian military bloggers.
After Ukraine’s sweeping counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region this month, Kyiv’s forces moved south, pushing to reclaim Lyman for the past two weeks. A victory there would mark Ukraine’s most significant success in the Donbas region since Russia concentrated the bulk of its forces there in the spring. Also key for the Ukrainians would be maintaining battlefield momentum at a time when Moscow is sending more forces – Putin announced the mobilization of up to 300,000 men – to the front lines.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, assessed that “Ukrainian troops have likely nearly completed the encirclement of the Russian grouping in Lyman and cut critical ground lines of communication” in the area.
“It is highly unlikely that any deployment of additional, newly mobilized, forces to Lyman will afford the existing Russian grouping significant defensive capabilities and prevent Ukrainian troops from collapsing the Lyman pocket,” the analysts said.
Putin is already facing criticism at home for the mobilization and for losing ground in the north. Oleg Tsarov, a Ukrainian collaborator with Russia, noted on Twitter that while Moscow is set to celebrate the annexation of four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – on Friday, the situation in Lyman is “a bad backdrop.” It will reinforce that Russia is moving to annex the territories despite a tenuous military hold on them. Russian forces do not fully control any of the regions.
At least 23 people were killed early Friday after a suspected Russian missile struck a convoy of Ukrainians waiting to cross into Russian-occupied territory, the head of Zaporizhzhia’s regional administration said.
Washington Post reporters had interviewed civilians Thursday as they registered to join the queue near the final checkpoint under Ukrainian control. Most said they were delivering humanitarian supplies or crossing the line to collect relatives who had been unable to leave on their own.
They were due to depart at 6 a.m., and the strike was reported at 7:49 local time by the province’s governor, Oleksandr Starukh. He said 23 people were killed and 28 injured. Unverified video footage, which appeared to have been taken in the same location that Post reporters visited Thursday, showed several bodies on the ground as the person filming cried quietly off-camera. There was blood on the ground.
Ukraine still holds roughly a quarter of the Zaporizhzhia region, including the capital city of the same name.
Morale may be waning among newly mobilized Russian troops, according to Britain’s defense ministry. This could be in part due to a lack of medical aid supplies and equipment.
“Some newly mobilised Russian reservists have been ordered to source their own combat first aid supplies, with the advice that female sanitary products are a cost-effective solution. Medical training and first-aid awareness is likely poor,” it said in a daily intelligence update.
“Medical provision for Russian combat troops in Ukraine is probably growing worse,” it added. In turn, “Russian troops’ lack of confidence in sufficient medical provision is almost certainly contributing to a declining state of morale and a lack of willingness to undertake offensive operations in many units in Ukraine.”
Tens of thousands of Russians have fled after Putin announced the “partial” military mobilization. One told The Post he flew through two countries in four days to escape, adding: “The main task is to save your life.”
(c) 2022, The Washington Post · Ellen Francis, Louisa Loveluck, Adela Suliman, Erin Cunningham
