Talking tough, Vladmir Putin announces annexations of 4 Ukraine regions
Putin proclaimed, “People living in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region are becoming our compatriots forever,”
https://globalnews.ca/video/rd/13e41074-40ef-11ed-be52-0242ac110005/?jwsource=cl
Moscow/Kremlin: After a ‘referendum’ in Ukraine regions, a defiant President Vladimir Putin proclaimed Russia’s annexation of a swathe of Ukraine in a pomp-filled Kremlin ceremony, promising Moscow would triumph in its “special military operation” against Kyiv even as some of his troops faced potential retreat.
In a quick reaction from West, the Russian president’s proclamation of Russian rule over 15 per cent of Ukraine – the biggest annexation in Europe since the Second World War – was roundly rejected by Western countries, with the United States, Canada and Britain announcing new sanctions. Russian forces in one of the four regions being annexed face being encircled by Ukrainian troops after Putin ordered a massive mobilization drive to get hundreds of thousands of Russian men to the front.
“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.
“People living in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region are becoming our compatriots forever,” said Putin, referring to the regions that he said Russia was annexing.
United States and Canada slapped new sanctions on Russian officials and elites Friday after President Vladimir Putin formally annexed four regions.