Putin seeks new powers from his rubber-stamp Duma to authorize extraterritorial military operations to “protect Russian citizens abroad.”

SHANKAR NARAYAN

MAR 11, 2026

It is one thing to see these numbers emerge from open-source analysts, and quite another to hear them from the Ukrainian president himself. Yet for many, the final sense of confirmation only arrives when the assessment comes from the Institute for the Study of War. 

ISW is methodical, often slow to move, and careful about drawing conclusions. Given the porous nature of Russian troop deployments in the south, establishing the exact scale of Ukraine’s advances was never going to be simple.

Now that confirmation has arrived. Ukraine has pushed Russian forces back by roughly 400 square kilometers since the beginning of the year.

That is roughly the size of Malta.

I want you to read this entire section from the Institute for the Study of War carefully. Once you’ve gone through it, we’ll break it down.

• Ukrainian forces advanced 10 to 12 kilometers deep in two separate drives in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast that have reportedly liberated more than 400 square kilometers since late January 2026. 
• Ukrainian forces conducted mutually supporting drives in the Hulyaipole and Oleksandrivka directions in late 2025 and early 2026, respectively, to push Russian forces from Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and to undermine Russian preparations for a spring offensive. 
• Ukrainian forces were likely able to rapidly advance in the Oleksandrivka direction after infiltrating dispersed Russian positions in poor weather conditions and suppressing Russian drone-based defenses. 
• SpaceX’s blocking of Russia’s Starlink satellite connection in Ukraine in early February 2026 likely also enabled Ukrainian advances in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to exaggerate Russian battlefield advances despite Ukrainian forces’ recent liberation of significant territory in southern Ukraine. 
• Ukrainian counterattacks in southern Ukraine are likely interfering with the anticipated Russian spring-summer 2026 offensives in Donetsk Oblast and southern Ukraine despite Putin’s claims of Russian battlefield successes. 
• Russia also continues to suffer massive losses on the battlefield that will continue to hinder Russia’s ability to achieve its sweeping goals for the spring-summer 2026 campaign. 
• Ukrainian forces are intensifying their theater-wide mid-range strike campaign against Russian logistics, military equipment, and manpower, which will likely also interfere with the Russian spring-summer 2026 offensive. 
• The Russian government is reportedly considering a bill that would grant the Russian president powers for extraterritorial military operations to protect Russian citizens abroad.

So we were right in our earlier assessment: Ukraine now holds the initiative in the theater.

Ukrainian counterattacks in the south are beginning to interfere with Moscow’s anticipated spring–summer 2026 offensive, forcing the Russian command to juggle competing priorities across multiple fronts. Units that were supposed to prepare for forward operations are instead being pulled into defensive roles, plugging gaps and stabilizing sectors that were expected to remain quiet.

In other words, while the Kremlin continues to talk about momentum, the battlefield itself is quietly telling a very different story. Ukraine is shaping the tempo of the fight, and Russia is increasingly reacting to it.

We weren’t exactly stunned to see reports that the Russian government wants to grant more powers to Vladimir Putin to “protect Russian citizens abroad.”

This is the same regime that has already burned through hundreds of thousands of Russian lives in pursuit of imperial conquest. Invoking the safety of a few hundred Russians living somewhere abroad is simply the propaganda wrapper. The domestic message is obvious: the war is going well, Russia is strong, and the state must be ready to act wherever Russians supposedly need protection.

Look at the sequence more carefully and the logic becomes clearer. First, independent social media platforms were pushed out of the Russian information space, shrinking the room for protest if the Kremlin takes the next step. Now new legal powers are being prepared that would allow the Kremlin to expand military operations beyond Russia’s borders under the banner of “protecting citizens.”

Once those authorities are in place, the rest of the architecture practically writes itself. The Kremlin gains broader legal grounds to mobilize manpower, expand the war if it chooses, and tighten the penalties on anyone who dares to resist it.

…………………………….

Phillips P. OBrien :

The willingness of major European states such as Britain and France to send their military forces to actively defend countries in the Middle East but not to defend Ukraine shows how Europe has a distorted sense of its own interests.

To put it less kindly, they have it all ass-backwards.

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Garry Kasparov 

I’d say unbelievable, but I haven’t been in a coma for the past 10 years. Whenever there’s a crisis, Trump calls Putin and comes out reciting the Kremlin line and singing Putin’s praises. Trump is Putin’s creature and the GOP is complicit.