Putin introduces martial law in annexed regions

Vladimir Putin – Picture by Ansa Foto

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instituted martial law in the republics annexed to Moscow by referendum.

He made this known in his speech to the Russian Security Council, announcing that he had signed the decree concerning Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson but also other territories on the border with Ukraine: Krasnodar, Belgorod, Briansk , Voronezh, Kursk and Rostov and the territories of Crimea and Sevastopol, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Putin: “kyiv refuses dialogue”

Putin accused Zelensky of refusing dialogue so “attacks continue, civilians are dying”. “As we know, the kyiv regime has refused to recognize the will and the choice of the people and rejects any proposal for dialogue. On the contrary, the attacks continue, civilians are dying,” the tsar said.

News from the front

Meanwhile, the siege continues on the Ukrainian front. The Russians eliminated the Ukrainian assault force near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, killing over 90 soldiers and destroying 14 boats.

Meanwhile, Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy provider, said the situation at the plant was “absolutely under control”. “About 50 employees of the Zaporizhzhia power plant are prisoners of the Russians,” Ukrainian operator Energoatom told AFP.

According to the regional military administration of Mykolaiv Vitaly Kim “the Russians are preparing to bombard Kherson, which they occupy”.

The air alert went off in most Ukrainian regions, from kyiv to Odessa, but also in Mykolaiv and Poltava, Chernihiv, Zaporozhzhia, Kirovograd and Cherkasy.

The Ukrainian armed forces “launched an offensive in the direction of Novaya Kamenka-Berislav in the Kherson region”.