meaning of "~しており、...."? isn't that 謙譲語{けんじょうご}?

Question

The second line in the first paragraph of this Bloomberg news article reads as such:

ロシア軍{ぐん}は既{すで}にウクライナのクリミア自治共和国{じちきょうわこく}の一部{いちぶ}の施設{しせつ}を占拠{せんきょ}しており、ウクライナ政府{せいふ}は軍事{ぐんじ}侵攻{しんこう}を受{う}けていると非難{ひなん}している。

I perceive that to mean:

Russian military forces already occupy some facilities in Ukraine's Crimean autonomous region, and the Ukrainian government is condemning their having suffered this military invasion.

I've never seen the structure "しておる" (which I assume is the structure from which "しており" is derived. Isn't "おる" 謙譲語{けんじょうご}? And, straight news articles surely could not have the context for 敬語{けいご}. But, even so, the convention in newspapers is to use "しており", instead of "してあり"?

I just read past "しており" and assign it no meaning. I want to change this. I'd like to have at least some meaning come to mind when I read "しており、".

Answer 1

The しており in this particular sentence is certainly not 謙譲語 because the speaker is not talking about himself. Rather, he is talking about ロシア軍. One uses 謙譲語 to indirectly show respect to the listener by speaking humbly about himself. In news reporting, as you stated, there is no need or expectation of the use of any kind of 敬語.

In this case, しており is simply the more formal form of していて (not of してあり as you said) and therefore, it is in the continuative form. "are occupying ~~ and ~~". しており could not be translated by itself but it would help you to remember that it functions as the continuative or conjunctive form of a verb phrase describing a state or situation.

Answer 2

For a more formal (not to be confused with polite or respectful) tone, especially in writing or speeches, etc. Japanese often use the masu-stem form to link sentences, instead of the te-form.

However, the masu-stem form of ている（て居る）would be てい which looks and sounds plain weird, so an alternate verb おる is substituted in, and becomes ており.

Or at least that's how my teacher explained it.