What happened on 5 October 2022 in Ukraine?

What did the war look like on 5 October 2022? It was a day of two diverging tracks: a legal act signed in Moscow and a military advance along the Dnieper in southern Ukraine.

On that date, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law formally annexing the Donetsk People's Republic, the Luhansk People's Republic, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia into Russia. The step followed the Federation Council's unanimous approval on 4 October 2022, when it was reported that the annexation documents would next receive Putin's final signature.

Movement on the ground

The same day, Ukrainian troops recaptured the strategic village of Dudchany on the west bank of the Dnieper, after Russian forces withdrew. The village lies in Kherson Oblast, one of the regions covered by the annexation law signed that day.

The gain came at the end of several days of advances. On 3 October 2022, Ukrainian forces were reported to have moved more than 20 kilometres along the Dnieper towards Dudchany, in what was being called a major breakthrough. On 4 October 2022, Ukraine's 35th Marine Brigade recaptured Davydiv Brid, a village in Beryslav Raion of Kherson Oblast, as the ground offensive continued. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said around 3,500 citizens had been freed from Russian occupation in recent days.

Changes in the Russian command

On 3 October 2022, the Russian Defence Ministry dismissed Colonel General Alexander Zhuravlyov, responding to a series of military defeats in Ukraine. Major General Roman Berdnikov replaced him as commander of the Western Military District.

A day in context

Taken together, the reports from 3 to 5 October 2022 show a sequence: Ukrainian forces advancing in Kherson Oblast, a command change in the Russian military, and, in parallel, Russia's formal legal step on the four regions. By 5 October 2022, Dudchany was among the places Ukrainian troops had retaken in the south, in a region Moscow had just declared part of Russia on paper.