On March 23 Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada put out a decree on their website, declaring several districts and towns of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts to be temporarily occupied territories until militants, mercenaries and Russian troops withdraw from there.
“To recognize as temporarily occupied the districts, towns and villages of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions where the Ukrainian law on the special local self-governance regime in certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions is being introduced until all illegal armed groups, Russian-occupation troops, their military hardware, as well militants and mercenaries withdraw from Ukraine and Ukraine regains full control of its national border,” reads the decree signed by Speaker Volodymyr Hroisman.
The decree will take effect on the day after its publication.
