Newsman: Russia’s President Vladimir V. Putin declared the four territories to be part of Russia. Western leaders, including President Biden in the United States, denounced the annexation as illegal. President Vladimir V. Putin decreed on Friday that four regions of Ukraine — including the province of Donetsk, which includes Ms. Kharkovska’s hometown, Lyman — had been annexed into Russia.
A ceremonial event was held at the Kremlin on Friday to celebrate an annexation.
In speeches Putin signaled that he was ready to continue what he called a battle for a “greater historical Russia”, slammed the West as out to destroy Russia and, without evidence, accused Washington and its allies of blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
The four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – that Putin said Russia was absorbing had made a historic choice, Putin said.
“They have made a choice to be with their people, their motherland, to live with its fate, and to triumph with it. Truth is on our side. Russia is with us!” Putin told his country’s political elite, who had gathered in one of the Kremlin’s grandest halls to watch him sign the annexation documents.
“We will defend our land with all our strength and all our means,” he added, calling on “the Kyiv regime to immediately cease hostilities and return to the negotiation table
Russia organized so-called referendums before the annexation.
