Parts of Ukraine's Mykolaiv Oblast came under military occupation by Russian forces as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
By March 2022, after unsuccessfully attempting to take Voznesensk and capture Mykolaiv, Russian forces were pushed back to the southeastern part of the oblast.
On 21 September 2022, it was reported that the Russian-occupied areas of Mykolaiv Oblast would be incorporated into the Russian administration for the Kherson Oblast. Russia annexed the Kherson Oblast nine days later.
On 10 November 2022, Ukrainian forces liberated Snihurivka, the only Russian-held city in the oblast, amid a complete Russian withdrawal from areas on the right bank of the Dnieper River. The next day, local Ukrainian officials claimed that the entire Mykolaiv Oblast had been liberated except for the Kinburn Peninsula.
Occupation
Russian occupation regime
Shortly after invading Ukraine, Russian forces occupied the town of Snihurivka, which is approximately 60 km (37.3 miles) from the regional capital of Mykolaiv. Russian forces also occupied surrounding towns near the border with Kherson Oblast, as well as several villages (Pokrovka, Pokrovske and Vasylivka) in the Biloberezhia Sviatoslava National Park.
In late April, Russian forces prepared a referendum to integrate occupied areas into the Republic of Crimea as well as appoint a governor for the areas. Russian passports and rubles were said to be issued and given out by September 1, and had already been issued and given out in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia administrations.
On 27 June 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine claimed to have detained a former deputy of the Mykolaiv City Council who was collaborating with Russian forces in Mykolaiv Oblast. He was a supporter of the separation of Mykolaiv Oblast from Ukraine and the creation of a Russian-backed separatist enclave called the "Mykolaiv People's Republic". He reportedly leaked information about the Armed Forces of Ukraine in hopes of obtaining an executive position in the occupying administration. The plan was for the separatist enclave to exist until the end of the war in Ukraine, at which point it would be annexed to Russia. The Russians had allegedly also promised the collaborator an executive position in the "MPR" administration as a reward for his work if they managed to occupy the region.
The administration was officially established on 13 August 2022.
On 2 September, Russian forces captured the settlement of Pervomaiske. The settlement of Partyzanske remained contested.
On 21 September, it was announced that the area surrounding Snihurivka as well as the outer portion of the Kinburn Peninsula, which constituted the parts of Mykolaiv Oblast that were under Russian control at the time, would be incorporated into Russia's administration in Kherson Oblast. These areas would eventually be annexed by Russia on 30 September.
Russian annexation
On 8 August 2022, Ekaterina Gubareva, deputy head of the Kherson Civilian-Military Administration announced the annexation of occupied territories of Mykolaiv Oblast. She also claimed that in some occupied towns, Russian mobile communications have begun to work. According to her, such a decision was made in order to provide the population with social payments in the "liberated" territories, as well as to establish mobile communications and television broadcasting.
On 13 August 2022, an article published by Tass, claimed that Yuriy Barbashov, governor of occupied territories claimed that a referendum in Snihurivka would take place to join Russia. The referendum would be aligned as the one in the Kherson Oblast.
On 11 September, following a major Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast, it was announced that the proposed annexation referendums would be "indefinitely" postponed.
On 30 September, Russia officially annexed the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts. The occupied areas of the Mykolaiv Oblast including Snihurivka and Oleksandrivka were streamlined into the Kherson Oblast claimed by Russia. The United Nations General Assembly subsequently passed a resolution calling on countries not to recognise what it described as an "attempted illegal annexation" and demanded that Russia "immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw".
Ukrainian counteroffensive
Amid the Russian withdrawal across the Dnieper River, it was reported that Russian troops were leaving Snihurivka and evacuating the population into Crimea and the occupied Kherson Oblast. During this time, Ukrainian forces recaptured Ternovi Pody and Liubomyrivka, west of occupied Tsentralne, after conducting several raids.
On 9 November, the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced the withdrawal of Russian forces from the right bank of the Dnieper River. The next day, Ukrainian forces re-entered the town of Snihurivka and raised the Ukrainian flag. A few other small settlements remained under Russian control. By 11 November Ukrainian forces had regained control of almost all of the oblast with only the outer portion of the Kinburn Peninsula remaining under Russian occupation.
Impact
The village of Maksymivka was completely destroyed.
A mass grave was found in Snihurivka with 27 dead civilians. At the same time, it was emphasized that no mass burial sites were found in the city, as in the massacre in Bucha, Kyiv oblast. All the bodies were buried in individual graves. Much of the city was damaged and destroyed. A tomato plant, built in 2018, had been bombed and destroyed using grad multiple rocket launchers.