What 15 August 2022 showed about training and occupation
A retrospective on a day when allied training plans and occupation structures in southern Ukraine were both in the news.
What did the war look like on 15 August 2022? Two tracks ran side by side: outside support for Ukraine's army, and Russia's effort to build administrative structures in territory it held.
On 15 August 2022, the prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, announced the deployment of 120 New Zealand troops to the United Kingdom to train Ukrainian forces. The announcement placed training for Ukraine's army in a third country, with the work carried out in the United Kingdom.
Occupation structures in the south
On 13 August 2022, the establishment of a pro-Russian Mykolaiv military–civilian administration was announced, with its seat in Snihurivka. Yuri Barbashov became its head. The announcement probably understated the timeline: the body is thought to have begun functioning some days earlier. Parts of Mykolaiv Oblast came under military occupation by Russian forces as part of the invasion, and this administration was the form that occupation took on paper.
Front-line claims
The same day brought competing claims from the front. Russia said it had captured the village of Pisky in Donetsk Oblast. Ukrainian forces said they had destroyed a bridge in Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast.
Reading the day
Taken together, these reports show activity on several levels. Governments abroad were committing personnel to prepare Ukrainian soldiers. In the occupied south, Russia was announcing administrative bodies. Along the front, each side was making claims about territory and infrastructure.
The reports do not link these developments to each other, and it would be wrong to claim a connection. As a snapshot of 15 August 2022 and the days just before it, they show a war being fought on the ground, with both sides preparing for what came next.
