President Vladimir Putin ordered dramatically heightened security, including restrictions on movement, in regions along the border with Ukraine as attacks have spread into Russian territory.
Citing strikes in recent weeks in border zones and a bombing on his showcase bridge to Crimea, Putin told a televised meeting of his Security Council that he’s ordering stepped-up measures across much of the country. He also extended existing martial-law regimes in the four Ukrainian territories he annexed last month.
Russian forces have steadily lost ground over the last two months to a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has retaken large areas of the zones Putin claimed to annex. On Wednesday, Russian occupation authorities in the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine said they were relocating to areas further back from the front lines as Kyiv’s troops continued to press forward and cut off their supply lines.
