According to presidential decrees released late Thursday, just before Russia completes its annexation, Russian President Vladimir Putin has recognized the independence of the Ukrainian provinces of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. In the decrees, Putin stated that he “orders the recognition of the state sovereignty and independence” of the southern Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. On Friday, Russia will formally annex these two territories, along with Donetsk and Lugansk. Moscow has announced that it will formally annex four Ukrainian areas on Friday during a ceremony held in the Kremlin.
The annexation of the lands will be formally announced at the ceremony, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, and Putin would make a significant statement.
Putin has stated that he will protect the regions with nuclear weapons.
The Russian troops have been pushed back in the east by a massive Ukrainian counteroffensive, which has not been deterred by the threats. Lyman, a town in the Donetsk region that Moscow’s forces pummelled for weeks before seizing it this summer, is now within striking distance.
In preparation for the ceremony, the Kremlin-installed governors of the four regions that appealed to Putin for annexation this week assembled in the Russian capital on Thursday.
After claiming that inhabitants had unanimously supported the relocation in hastily organized referendums that Kyiv and the West rejected as illegal, fraudulent, and worthless, they made their requests almost simultaneously.
Ukraine claimed that the only reasonable response from the West was to increase sanctions against Russia and arm Ukrainian soldiers with more equipment so they could continue regaining land.
“The United States will never, never, never recognize Russia’s claims on Ukraine’s sovereign land,” US Vice President Joe Biden said on Thursday.
The annexation plans were also opposed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who referred to them as “a reckless escalation” that “has no place in the modern world.”
