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RIGA, Latvia — Russian President Vladimir Putin imposed martial law Wednesday in Ukrainian territories illegally annexed by Moscow last month, signaling an intensifying effort to achieve his war objectives, and opening another dark and uncertain chapter for thousands of Ukrainians living under military occupation.
Martial law, which takes effect at midnight, imposes strict military controls over the occupied areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and gives Russia’s military and proxy authorities broad powers of arrest and detention.
The decree, issued as Russia loses ground in southern Ukraine, is based on the premise that Russian territory is under attack — although the annexation of the four regions was a violation of international law, and was overwhelmingly condemned in a United Nations vote last week.
Putin said the four regions had been under martial law before Russia claimed to have annexed and absorbed them. “We now need to legalize this state in accordance with Russian legislation,” he said. “Therefore, I have signed a decree introducing martial law in these four regions of Russia.”
Because the territories have been under military occupation for many months, and residents have already been living under draconian restrictions, Putin’s declaration seemed at least partly designed for a domestic audience, including pro-war hawks who have criticized Russia’s military failures. It also created some legal cover, at least under Russian law, for an array of potential abuses by military authorities and their proxies.
A senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, said the declaration of martial law “should be considered only as a pseudo-legalization of looting of Ukrainians’ property.” Posting on Twitter, Podolyak said, “This does not change anything for Ukraine: we continue the liberation and deoccupation of our territories.”
Putin’s decree followed 10 days of sustained airstrikes and drone attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, part of a clear shift in strategy by Moscow, which is aiming to compensate for battlefield losses with superior long-range missile power and a vast fleet of Iranian-made attack drones.
The developments confront Kyiv and its Western backers with yet another test of their resolve. NATO powers, including the United States, have promised to rush additional air defense systems to Ukraine, hoping to thwart Russia’s goal of leaving the country without electricity or heat as winter looms.
Speaking during a meeting of Russia’s security council Wednesday, Putin said he would also be establishing a new coordinating committee for the areas under martial law, to be led by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. The martial law orders were unanimously ratified by the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, in an extraordinary session late Wednesday.
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But Russia does not fully control the four regions it claimed to annex, and Ukrainian forces have made substantial advances in recent weeks to reclaim previously occupied territories.
Four illegally
annexed
regions where
Putin declares
martial law.
Area held
by Russia-
backed
separatists
since 2014
Annexed by Russia
in 2014
Control areas as of Oct. 18
Sources: Institute for the Study of War, AEI’s Critical Threats Project
Ukraine-reclaimed territory
through counteroffensives
Four illegally
annexed
regions where
Putin declares
martial law.
Area held by
Russia-backed
separatists
since 2014
Annexed by Russia
in 2014
Control areas as of Oct. 18
Sources: Institute for the Study of War, AEI’s Critical Threats Project
Ukraine-reclaimed territory
through counteroffensives
Four illegally
annexed
regions where
Putin declares
martial law.
Area held by
Russia-backed
separatists
since 2014
Annexed by Russia
in 2014
Control areas as of Oct. 18
Sources: Institute for the Study of War
Even without a decree of martial law, Russia has routinely arrested, jailed, tortured and killed Ukrainians in areas it has occupied since the invasion began on Feb. 24, and its forces stand accused of numerous war crimes.
Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defense council, echoed the view that martial law was merely an effort by the Kremlin to proe domestic legal cover for further abuses against Ukrainians who resist Russia’s occupation, and to punish those still loyal to Kyiv.
“Putin’s martial law in the annexed regions … is preparation for the mass deportation of the Ukrainian population to depressed areas of [Russia] in order to change the ethnic composition of the occupied territory,” Danilov tweeted. He said the forced relocations should be regarded as a war crime.
Putin’s announcement came as Russian proxy officials in Kherson said they had begun moving about 50,000 people out of the city of Kherson, with Russian officials predicting a major Ukrainian assault.
Col. Gen. Sergei Surovikin, who was announced as commander of the Russian assault on Ukraine earlier this month, said he could not rule out “difficult decisions.”
“Our plans and actions regarding the city of Kherson will depend on the unfolding military-tactical situation. I would like to reiterate that it is quite difficult today,” Surovikin said in an interview on state television.
It was not clear whether the difficult decisions could entail a military retreat from the city, or a large-scale battle if Ukrainian forces attack.
Ukrainian troops have been advancing slowly in the Kherson region in recent weeks, destroying bridges and cutting supply lines, increasing the pressure on Russian forces on the west bank of the Dnieper River. Though the Russians have been pushed back, they appeared to be making a more orderly, strategic retreat than they did last month in the northeastern Kharkiv region, where they fled haphazardly, abandoning vehicles and equipment.
Russia was using ferries and buses to move people from Kherson on Wednesday, and its forces stopped civilian vehicles from entering the city. The Kherson region forms a crucial part of Putin’s much-coveted “land bridge” from mainland Russia to Crimea, the peninsula that Russia invaded and annexed illegally in 2014.
The loss of Kherson — the capital of one of four territories that were illegally annexed by Putin — would be a major blow to Russia’s war aims. The city was the first regional capital seized in the invasion and served as a Russian logistical and political base in efforts to extend Russia’s control across southern Ukraine, including to the port city of Odessa. Resistance by the Ukrainian military halted those efforts.
But Ukraine’s attempts to recapture the city of Kherson have been slow, and have come at a high cost in casualties as Russia deployed its most experienced forces to the region.
Russian officials and their proxies in Ukraine sent out text messages Wednesday instructing people to leave, warning that Ukrainian forces could bombard Kherson, or attempt to flood the city by destroying a nearby hydroelectric dam.
Throughout the war, however, it is Russia that has repeatedly launched major attacks on cities such as Mariupol and Kharkiv, ruthlessly hitting civilian targets and destroying apartment blocks, hospitals, schools and vital infrastructure. Attacking civilian infrastructure, which has no military purpose, is a war crime.
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Despite the eence in recent weeks of Russian forces surrendering, retreating or refusing to fight, Surovikin claimed that it was the Ukrainian forces marshaled to retake Kherson who had low morale.
The general claimed Russia’s strategy was to “take care of every soldier and methodically grind the advancing enemy” and to avoid civilian casualties. A Moscow proxy official in Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, said Russia would not retreat.
“We are not going to surrender the city. We will stand to the end,” Stremousov said Wednesday. He added that Russia was turning Kherson into a fortress, comments that implied a long, bitter battle ahead.
Mary Ilyushina and Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia, and Da L. Stern in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
