What did Zelenskyy's decree on Russian territories signal?
A retrospective on a presidential decree signed on 22 January 2024, a day after a drone strike on a Leningrad Oblast port complex.
What did it mean when Ukraine's president put his name to a decree about Russian territory? On 22 January 2024, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree recognising some Russian territories, including parts of Bryansk Oblast and Krasnodar Krai, as historically inhabited by Ukrainians.
The decree came a day after a separate event inside Russia. On 21 January 2024, a drone attack hit the Ust-Luga Multimodal Complex in Leningrad Oblast and caused a large fire. Novatek, the Russian gas producer, subsequently suspended all operations at the complex. Ukraine claimed responsibility for the attack.
The two developments came on consecutive days during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. One was a strike on industrial infrastructure in Russia, the other a presidential decree about territory. Taken together, they show Kyiv acting on two fronts: through force against a Russian port complex, and through an official act that addressed the question of Ukrainian historical presence in Russian regions.
