In a particularly virulent speech against the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin formalized this Friday the annexation of four oblasts in eastern Ukraine, those of Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson. An area that in total represents 100,000 km2 of territory.
But while the master of the Kremlin celebrated this expansion of the Russian Federation with great fanfare, the Ukrainian forces continue to recover ground in the area in question. Because, in fact, Russia does not control all the territories declared Russian on Friday.
A single oblast controlled in its entirety
As our maps below show, the fighting continues, as Ukraine has embarked on a successful counter-offensive in recent weeks. Only Luhansk Oblast is fully controlled by Moscow. Donetsk Oblast is only half in Russian hands, and Zaporizhia only two-thirds. As for the Kherson region, the Ukrainians have recently regained ground in the northeast.
In Lyman, in Donetsk Oblast, the situation is particularly revealing. In this city, the Ukrainian soldiers launched an operation to encircle the Russian military forces. The Kyiv forces could even be successful in their maneuvers, according to the latest available reports.
And in early September, Kyiv announced that it had seized twenty towns in the east and south.
An annexation only in speech?
After this observation, one question remains. What did Vladimir Putin really annex this Friday? All these four oblasts, even though he only controls a part of them? Or on the contrary, only areas controlled by Moscow?
“It is quite vague. In fact, it is the parts that are actually occupied. It is likely that, in reality, it was mainly a question of annexing the provinces within their administrative limits. The announced military objective was to annex elsewhere the two provinces. of Donbass within its administrative boundaries. We are very far from that there,” explained Michel Goya, defense consultant for BFMTV.
Source: BFM TV
