Putin's visit to occupied Kherson and Luhansk regions
A rare trip to Russian-occupied areas in April 2023 placed the annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts back in view.
What did it mean when Russia's president travelled to occupied parts of Ukraine? On 20 April 2023, two days after the visit, the question still hung over the territories Moscow claimed to have annexed.
On 18 April 2023, Russian president Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to Russian-occupied Kherson and Luhansk oblasts. He met military commanders in charge of military operations there, as reported at the time.
The territorial claim
The two oblasts were among four, with Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia, that Russia unilaterally declared annexed on 30 September 2022. Most of Luhansk Oblast and part of Donetsk Oblast had been controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014, while Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts were invaded by Russia in 2022.
The boundaries of the areas to be annexed were never defined. Russian officials said they would be set later. None of the four oblasts was fully under Russian control when the declaration was made, and none has been since.
Reading the visit
The meeting with commanders, rather than a civilian event, tied the trip to the conduct of military operations in two of the claimed oblasts. Set against the undefined borders of the annexation, the visit put a senior figure in territory that Russia claimed but did not fully hold.
