By JON GAMBRELL and HANNA ARHIROVA
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties Friday to annex elements of Ukraine in defiance of worldwide legislation, saying Moscow would shield the newly included areas by “all available means.”
He additionally urged Ukraine to take a seat down for peace talks however instantly insisted he received’t talk about handing them again, opening a brand new escalatory section of his seven-month invasion of the nation.
Kyiv and the West have rejected his land-grab in Ukraine. The European Union’s 27 member states mentioned they are going to by no means acknowledge the unlawful referendums that Russia organized “as a pretext for this further violation of Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
In a Kremlin ceremony on the ornate St. George’s Hall to herald the annexation of the occupied elements of Ukraine, Putin accused the West of fueling the hostilities as a part of what he mentioned is a plan to show Russia right into a “colony” and a “crowds of slaves.” The hardening of his place, within the battle that that has killed and wounded tens of hundreds of individuals, additional cranked up tensions, already at ranges unseen because the Cold War.
The European Union instantly responded to Putin’s newest step with a joint assertion rejecting and condemning “the illegal annexation” of the 4 areas: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine vowed to proceed preventing.
“We don’t pay attention to those whose time to take pills has come. The army is working, Ukraine is united — only moving forward,” mentioned Andrii Yermak, head of the presidential workplace..
The ceremony got here three days after the completion within the occupied areas of Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums” on becoming a member of Russia that had been dismissed by Kyiv and the West as a bare-faced land seize held at gunpoint and based mostly on lies.
In his speech railing on the West, Putin urged Ukraine to take a seat down for talks and mentioned it ought to deal with the Kremlin-managed votes “with respect.” But he instantly certified his provide of negotiations with a stern warning that surrendering management of the 4 areas wouldn’t be on the desk.
Putin portrayed his invasion as a part of a historic mission to reclaim Russia’s nice energy standing and counter Western domination that he mentioned is collapsing.
“History has called us to a battlefield to fight for our people, for the grand historic Russia, for future generations,” he mentioned.
The separatist Donetsk and Luhansk areas in jap Ukraine have been backed by Moscow since declaring independence in 2014, weeks after the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. The southern Kherson area and a part of neighboring Zaporizhzhia had been captured by Russia quickly after Putin despatched troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Both homes of the Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament will meet subsequent week to rubber-stamp the treaties for the areas to hitch Russia, sending them to Putin for his approval.
Putin and his lieutenants have bluntly warned Ukraine towards urgent an offensive to reclaim the areas, saying Russia would view it as an act of aggression – threats that Moscow can again up with the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear warheads.
The Kremlin-organized votes in Ukraine had been an try by Putin to keep away from extra defeats on the battlefields that might threaten his 22-year rule. By setting Russia’s features in stone, at the very least on paper, Putin seemingly hopes to scare Ukraine and its Western backers with the prospect of an more and more escalatory battle except they again down — which they present no indicators of doing.
Russia controls many of the Luhansk and Kherson areas, about 60% of the Donetsk area and a big chunk of the Zaporizhzhia area the place it took management of Europe’s largest nuclear energy plant.
The push ahead with annexation comes with the Kremlin on the verge of one other stinging battlefield loss, with studies of the upcoming Ukrainian encirclement of the jap metropolis of Lyman.
Retaking it may open the trail for Ukraine to push deep into Luhansk, one of many areas Russia is absorbing.
“It looks quite pathetic. Ukrainians are doing something, taking steps in the real material world, while the Kremlin is building some kind of a virtual reality, incapable of responding in the real world,” former Kremlin speechwriter turned political analyst Abbas Gallyamov mentioned.
“People understand that the politics is now on the battlefield,” he added. “What’s important is who advances and who retreats. In that sense, the Kremlin cannot offer anything сomforting to the Russians.”
Russia on Friday additionally pounded Ukrainian cities with missiles, rockets and suicide drones, with one strike reported to have killed 25 individuals. The salvos collectively amounted to the heaviest barrage that Russia has unleashed for weeks.
They adopted analysts’ warnings that Putin was more likely to dip extra closely into his dwindling shares of precision weapons and step up assaults as a part of a technique to escalate the battle to an extent that will shatter Western assist for Ukraine.
A Ukrainian counteroffensive has disadvantaged Moscow of mastery on the navy fields of battle. Its maintain of the Luhansk area seems more and more shaky, as Ukrainian forces make inroads there, with the pincer assault on Lyman. Ukraine additionally nonetheless has a big foothold within the neighboring Donetsk area.
In the Zaporizhzhia area’s capital, anti-aircraft missiles that Russia has repurposed as ground-attack weapons rained down Friday on individuals who had been ready in vehicles to cross into Russian-occupied territory so they might carry members of the family again throughout entrance strains, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential workplace, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, mentioned.
The normal prosecutor’s workplace mentioned 25 individuals had been killed and 50 wounded. The strike left deep impression craters and despatched shrapnel tearing by the humanitarian convoy’s lined-up autos, killing their passengers. Nearby buildings had been demolished. Trash luggage, blankets and, for one sufferer, a blood-soaked towel, had been used to cowl our bodies.
Russian-installed officers in Zaporizhzhia blamed Ukrainian forces for the strike, however offered no proof.
Russian strikes had been additionally reported within the metropolis of Dnipro. The regional governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, mentioned at the very least one particular person was killed and 5 had been wounded.
Ukraine’s air drive mentioned the southern cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa had been additionally focused with Iranian-supplied suicide drones that Russia has more and more deployed in current weeks, seemingly to keep away from shedding extra pilots who don’t have management of Ukraine’s skies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy known as an emergency assembly of his National Security and Defense Council and denounced the newest Russian strikes.
“The enemy rages and seeks revenge for our steadfastness and his failures,” he posted on his Telegram channel. “You will definitely answer. For every lost Ukrainian life!”
With Ukraine vowing to take again all occupied territory and Russia pledging to defend its features, threatening nuclear-weapon use and mobilizing an extra 300,000 troops regardless of protests, the 2 nations are on an more and more escalatory collision course.
That was underscored by the preventing for Lyman, a key node for Russian navy operations within the Donbas and a sought-after prize within the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in late August.
The Russian-backed separatist chief of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, mentioned the town is now “half-encircled” by Ukrainian forces. In feedback reported by Russian state information company RIA Novosti, he described the setback as “worrying news.”
”Ukraine’s armed formations,” he mentioned, “are trying very hard to spoil our celebration,”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com”