Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed the annexation of four Ukrainian territories during a ceremony in the Kremlin, prompting a chorus of international condemnation and bravado from kyiv, which has promised to continue to liberate its lands. On the same day, a particularly deadly missile strike killed at least 25 civilians in an area under Ukrainian control near Zaporizhie.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky swept aside the Moscow ceremonies, declaring that kyiv would not negotiate with Russia as long as Vladimir Putin is president, and announcing that he was asking for “accelerated membership” of NATO. For his highly anticipated speech, the Russian leader arrived slightly late in St. George’s Hall in the Kremlin, ahead of members of the government, deputies, senators and other members of Russia’s political elite, as well as religious representatives.
Vladimir Putin signed the annexation documents alongside the leaders of the separatist regions of Ukraine of Donetsk and Lugansk (east) and those occupied by Russian troops in Zaporijjie and Kherson. The Russian president and his four guests then joined their hands before chanting “Russia! in unison with the room.
Zelensky responds to Putin
In his speech, Vladimir Putin called on kyiv to “immediately cease firing, all hostilities and return to the negotiating table”, despite the recent setbacks inflicted on the Russian army by Ukrainian forces, to which has been added since Friday partial encirclement of the strategic town of Lyman. “Ukraine will not negotiate with Russia as long as Putin is the president of the Russian Federation. We will negotiate with the new president”, replied Volodymyr Zelensky in a video, while announcing that he was going to “sign Ukraine’s candidacy for accelerated NATO membership”. His Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba promised to “liberate our lands and our people”. “Nothing has changed for Ukraine,” he said.
American Joe Biden has promised to “support Ukraine’s efforts to regain control of its territory”, as the United States supplies kyiv with weapons and ammunition despite Russian protests and the threat of Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons. Leaders of EU countries issued a statement on Friday “rejecting” and “condemning” this “illegal annexation”, accusing Moscow of putting “global security at risk”. NATO has denounced an “illegitimate” annexation. The UN Security Council is to vote Friday on a resolution condemning these “referendums”.
Putin castigates the West
Vladimir Putin has long denounced the West, which he accused of wanting at all costs to preserve a “neocolonial system which allows it to parasitize and, in reality, to plunder the whole world”. “They want to see us as a colony,” he said again. These annexations come after seven months of Russian offensive in Ukraine and “referendums” urgently organized in the occupied regions, which have been denounced as “simulacra” by kyiv and its allies.
As a sign of this haste and of a certain disorganization, the Kremlin spokesman announced that he had to “clarify” whether Russia was annexing all of the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporijjie or only the parts it actually occupied. He clarified that Vladimir Putin did not plan “for the time being” to visit the newly annexed regions.
Sweeping the critics, Vladimir Putin assured that he “did not aspire” to restore the USSR while launching: “The inhabitants of Lugansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhye become our citizens forever”. He also signed a decree facilitating access to Russian nationality for foreigners enlisting in the army.