1 Institute for the Study of War & AEI’s Critical Threats Project 2022
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 22
Kateryna Stepanenko, Karolina Hird, Grace Mappes, Layne Philipson, George Barros,
and Frederick W. Kagan
August 22, 6:15 pm ET
Click here to see ISW's interactive map of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This map is
updated daily alongside the static maps present in this report.
Russian occupation officials in Zaporizhia Oblast have obliquely declared the region’s
independence from Ukraine by falsely identifying Ukrainian citizens entering the
occupied region as temporary asylum seekers. Head of the Zaporizhia Oblast occupation
administration Yevheny Balitsky signed an order that designates Ukrainian citizens arriving in
occupied Zaporizhia Oblast as temporary asylum seekers based on Russian law.
The order requires the
registration of Ukrainian and Russian citizens based on their place of residence or place of arrival in
the Russian-occupied parts of Zaporizhia Oblast and requires the distribution of temporary
identification forms for all “stateless persons.” Ukrainians and Russians may register if they present
proof of their temporary asylum application. This decree has various implications under both
international law and domestic Russian law. International law states that a refugee is an individual
from outside the country (or who is stateless) who is seeking “temporary asylum” in another country to
escape persecution.
Neither of these statuses properly apply to the majority of people crossing from unoccupied Ukraine
into occupied Zaporizhia.
Russian occupation authorities are thus falsely classifying all Ukrainians entering
occupied territories in Zaporizhia Oblast as refugees escaping persecution in Ukraine.
The order also de facto identifies Ukraine as a separate country from the Zaporizhia Oblast entity, as
defined by the occupation authority. By classifying all Ukrainians as refugees, Russian occupation
authorities are establishing a new legal category that might have its own restrictions. Russian
occupation authorities may use the refugee status to restrict Ukrainians who temporarily return to
occupied territories after evacuating from them. The order will likely affect Ukrainian citizens traveling
to occupied Kherson Oblast via the checkpoint in Vasylivka, Zaporizhia Oblast, as the order requires
the registration of individuals at the point of arrival in the occupied Zaporizhia Oblast, and Vasylivka is
the checkpoint serving Kherson as well as Zaporizhia Oblasts.
Key Takeaways
• Russian-backed occupation authorities in Zaporizhia Oblast have obliquely
declared the independence of the occupied areas of the oblast by falsely identifying
Ukrainian citizens entering from unoccupied Ukraine as temporary asylum
seekers.
• Russian forces conducted localized spoiling attacks southwest and southeast of
Izyum.
• Russian forces continued ground attacks southeast of Siversk and northeast and
south of Bakhmut.
• Russian forces continued attempts to advance from the northern and western
outskirts of Donetsk City and conducted limited ground attacks southwest of
Donetsk City.
• Russian forces made marginal gains along the Mykolaiv-Kherson line.
