President Vladimir Putin declared “four new territories of Russia” on Friday as he formally annexed the Ukrainian districts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk.
During a seven-month war with Ukraine, Moscow’s forces captured portions of the four regions. After holding what it referred to as referendums in Ukraine’s seized regions, Russia announced the annexations. The ballots, according to Western nations and Kyiv, violated international law and were coerced and unrepresentative.
Putin also cautioned the West, saying that the residents of the four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine were “our citizens forever.”
“People in the Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia (regions) are becoming our citizens permanently,” Putin said, adding that they had made a “unambiguous choice” to join Russia. “I want to say this to the Kyiv dictatorship and its masters in the West.
Putin additionally encouraged Ukraine to hold negotiations to put an end to the seven-month conflict that began when the Russian president gave the order for his soldiers to invade Ukraine. The skewed results of the Moscow-controlled elections, he added, should be “treated… with respect,” and he severely warned that Russia would never cede control of the provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.
The treaties for the regions to join Russia will be ratified by both houses of the Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament next week, and then sent to Putin for his approval.
“We keep working to free Ukrainian territory. Additionally, we ignore individuals whose turn to take medications has come “The head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andrii Yermak, remarked. “Ukraine is united, and the army is at work. Nothing but forward motion
The ceremony was planned for Putin and the leaders of the four regions of Ukraine to sign treaties for the areas to join Russia, in a major escalation of the seven-month conflict, in the magnificent white-and-gold St. George’s Hall of the Kremlin.
Moscow has supported the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk areas in eastern Ukraine ever since they proclaimed their independence in 2014, just weeks after the Crimean Peninsula was annexed by Russia. Russia quickly took control of the southern Kherson area and a portion of the adjoining Zaporizhzhia region when Putin launched soldiers into Ukraine on February 24.
Putin and his lieutenants have sternly cautioned Ukraine against launching an effort to retake the areas, claiming that Russia would see such a move as an attack on its sovereign territory and would not hesitate to retaliate using “all measures available,” a clear allusion to Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
Putin is attempting to prevent further setbacks in Ukraine that could endanger his 22-year rule by organizing the ballots in Ukraine and issuing the nuclear scare.
Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, asserted that the annexation was unlawful and that the occupied territory will continue to be a part of Ukraine.
Von der Leyen stated on Twitter that “the illegitimate annexation proclaimed by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin won’t change anything.”
All areas that Russian invaders have illegitimately taken are Ukrainian territory, and they will always be a part of our independent country, said von der Leyen.
