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Annexation on paper, retreat on the Dnieper
Summary
A look back at 5 October 2022, when Moscow's legal claim to four Ukrainian regions met Ukrainian advances in Kherson Oblast.
What did Moscow's annexation law actually change on the ground on 5 October 2022? On that date, President Vladimir Putin signed a law formally annexing the Donetsk People's Republic, the Luhansk People's Republic, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia into Russia. The same day, Ukrainian troops recaptured the village of Dudchany on the west bank of the Dnieper after Russian forces withdrew.
A legal step with a procedural trail
The signing followed the Federation Council of Russia, which on 4 October 2022 unanimously approved the annexation of the four regions. The documents then awaited Putin's final signature, which came the next day. In legal terms, the process was complete within roughly 24 hours of the upper house's vote.
A front line moving the other way
The military picture in Kherson Oblast ran in the opposite direction. On 3 October 2022, Ukrainian forces advanced more than 20 kilometres along the Dnieper towards Dudchany, in what was described as a major breakthrough. On 4 October, Ukraine's 35th Marine Brigade recaptured Davydiv Brid in Beryslav Raion as the ground offensive continued. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said around 3,500 citizens had been freed from Russian occupation in recent days. The recapture of Dudchany on 5 October, described as a strategic village, followed directly from that advance.
The result was that one of the four regions Russia claimed in law saw Russian forces withdrawing from a village on the day the claim was signed.
Pressure inside the Russian command
There was also a change in Russia's command. On 3 October 2022, the Russian Defence Ministry dismissed Colonel General Alexander Zhuravlyov as commander of the Western Military District, in response to a series of military defeats in Ukraine. Major General Roman Berdnikov replaced him.
What the date shows
Taken together, the developments from 3 to 5 October 2022 show two tracks moving apart: a formal political act in Moscow, and a battlefield in which Ukrainian units were retaking villages along the Dnieper and Russia was replacing a senior commander after defeats. The annexation law set out a claim over Kherson and the other regions, while the fighting around Dudchany and Davydiv Brid was changing who held territory within them.
