In one of his most bellicose and provocative remarks as Russias war against Ukraine rages on, President Vladimir Putin said late last month that where the foot of a Russian soldier steps -- that is ours."

Moscows claims in fact go well beyond the land that its soldiers actually control in Ukraine more than 40 months into its full-scale invasion: In September 2022, Putin groundlessly declared that four partially occupied regions of Ukraine -- Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk, and Luhansk -- belong to Russia.

In any case, the remark suggested Putin might seek to seize more territory in Ukraine, where Russian soldiers and occupation authorities are accused of seeking towipe outUkrainian cultural identity and face allegations oftorture, abuse, abduction, and other crimes.

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At the same time, Russia is publicly vowing to make life for the residents of the regions it controls better. At a government meeting on June 30,Putin saidliving standards in the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine should reach the average level for Russia by 2030.

No way, Ukrainian activists and officials from those regions say.

Putins goal may be modest but its just not realistic, they argue, citing high hurdles put up by the invading country itself. And they point to the experience of Crimea, where living standards still lag more than 11 years after Russia seized control of the Black Sea peninsula without any of the destruction it has inflicted on mainland Ukraine.

A construction crew works on what remains of a building in Russian-occupied Mariupol, Ukraine, August 16, 2023.

At the meeting last month, Putin spoke of the need to rebuild or renovate schools, stadiums, hospitals, cultural centers, roads, housing, and more, and said that rhythmic, systematic work was proceeding on some 300 projects within the development program.

Theres little evidence of that on the ground in the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region, according to Serhiy Rybalko, a lawmaker in the regional legislature based in the city of Kherson, which was captured by Russian forces early in the invasion butretaken by Ukrainein a counteroffensive later in 2022.

Russia holds most of the land on the left bank of the Dnieper River, which bisects the region, while Ukraine holds the right bank.