Status: 01.10.2022 03:19 am
With a big concert on Red Square, the Kremlin celebrated the union of the four Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Cherson. This is an “irreversible step,” President Putin said.
Red Square in the evening – a single sea of flags. They give their all on stage. Musicians, well-known moderators and members of the army cheer the annexation of the four Ukrainian regions that had just been sealed in the Kremlin.
They welcome Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia. Not just anywhere, but in their ancestral homeland, as Vladimir Putin clarifies once again:
These people have kept in their hearts the love of their historic fatherland. And passed them on to their children. And that is why Russia is not only opening the doors to our brothers and sisters. But also the heart. Warmly welcome home.
Agreements contrary to international law: Russian President Putin annexes Ukrainian territories
Ina Ruck, ARD Moscow, daily news at 8:00 p.m., September 30, 2022
Not the same euphoria as with the annexation of Crimea
The crowd cheers. But the spark doesn’t really fly. The mood is different from eight years ago, when the annexation of Crimea was euphorically celebrated. Partial mobilization drives people. The concern that the war, which in Russia continues to be referred to only as a military special operation, could now catch up with them too.
As a result of the annexation, Ilona believes, the situation will finally change: “If Ukraine is now trying to regain territory, this will no longer be seen as a reconquest of its territory, but as an attack on Russian territory.”
And in this case, as the Russian President emphasized again in his speech in the Kremlin, there will be no quarter.
We will defend our country with every means we have.
A warning to Kyiv and to the West, which Putin sharply attacked in his speech. The annexation, he also made unmistakably clear, was irreversible. They will no longer be negotiated.
I want the Kiev leadership and their bosses in the West to listen to me, so that everyone remembers: the people who live in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia will be our citizens. Forever.
Leaders of the annexed territories not feeling like celebrating
Putin’s victorious, combative words, which the invited guests in the Kremlin received with a standing ovation, were countered by the serious expressions on the faces of the heads of the newly annexed Ukrainian territories.
The Ukrainian army is in the process of encircling the Russian troops in Lyman, the head of the Donetsk region, Denis Puschilin, publicly admitted on the sidelines of the concert on Red Square:
The situation is complicated, I don’t want to mislead anyone. The boys endure with the last of their strength.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has once again confirmed that he wants to liberate the entire territory occupied by Russia. The annexations will never be recognized. In addition, Kyiv has submitted an application for accelerated membership in NATO.