What did Putin's rare trip to occupied Ukraine involve?
A look back at the reported visit to Russian-occupied Kherson and Luhansk oblasts, days before 24 April 2023, and the annexation claim behind it.
What did it mean when Russia's president travelled to occupied parts of Ukraine? On 24 April 2023, the question still hung over a visit reported six days earlier, on 18 April 2023, when Russian president Vladimir Putin made a rare trip to Russian-occupied Kherson and Luhansk oblasts.
According to reports at the time, he met military commanders in charge of military operations there. The visit was described as rare, which set it apart from the usual pattern of his public appearances.
The claim behind the trip
Both oblasts were among four that Russia had unilaterally declared annexed on 30 September 2022, together with Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia. 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 at the time of the declaration. Russian officials said they would be set later. None of the four oblasts was fully under Russian control when the annexation was declared, and none has been since.
Seen from 24 April 2023, the visit to Kherson and Luhansk was therefore a meeting with military commanders in territory that Russia claimed as its own but did not fully hold.
