Kremlin set to annex parts of Ukraine

MOSCOW, Russia — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties Friday to annex occupied areas of Ukraine and mentioned he would use “all available means” to defend the territory that Ukrainian and Western officers mentioned Russia was claiming illegitimately and in violation of worldwide regulation.

In a speech previous the treaty-signing ceremony, Putin urged Ukraine to sit down for talks to finish the seven months of preventing that began when he ordered his troops to invade the neighboring nation. But he warned that Russia would by no means surrender the absorbed areas and would defend them as half of its sovereign territory.

The ceremony got here three days after the completion of Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums” on becoming a member of Russia that have been dismissed by Kyiv and the West as a bare-faced land seize held at gunpoint and primarily based on lies.

Putin mentioned Ukrainian authorities ought to “treat … with respect” the lopsided outcomes of the Moscow-managed votes and warned sternly that Russia would by no means give up management of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia areas.

Both homes of the Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament will meet subsequent week to rubber-stamp the treaties for the areas to be a part of Russia, sending them to Putin for his approval.

Ukrainian officers dismissed Putin’s remarks, saying the long run of the Ukraine was being selected the battlefields of Ukraine.

“We continue to work and liberate Ukrainian territories. And we don’t pay attention to those whose time to take pills has come,” Andrii Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said. “The army is working, Ukraine is united. Only moving forward.”

The occasion within the Kremlin’s opulent white-and-gold St. George’s Hall was organized for Putin and the heads of the 4 areas of Ukraine to signal treaties for the areas to be a part of Russia, in a pointy escalation of the seven-month battle.

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 half of the neighboring Zaporizhzhia have been captured by Russia quickly after Putin despatched troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Putin and his lieutenants have bluntly warned Ukraine in opposition to urgent an offensive to reclaim the areas, saying Russia would view it as an act of aggression in opposition to its sovereign territory and wouldn’t hesitate to use “all means available” in retaliation, a reference to Russia’s nuclear arsenal.

The Kremlin-organized votes in Ukraine and the nuclear warning are an try by Putin to keep away from extra defeats in Ukraine that would threaten his 22-year rule.

Russia controls most 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.

Asked about Russia’s plans, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned that on the very least Moscow goals to “liberate” all the Donetsk area.

As it ready to rejoice the incorporation of the occupied Ukrainian areas, the Kremlin was 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 one of the areas Russia is absorbing, a transfer broadly condemned as unlawful that opens a harmful new section of the seven-month warfare.

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 seemingly to dip extra closely into his dwindling shares of precision weapons and step up assaults as half of a method to escalate the warfare to an extent that may shatter Western assist for Ukraine.

The Kremlin preceded its scheduled annexation ceremonies Friday with one other warning to Ukraine that it shouldn’t combat to take again the 4 areas. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned Moscow would view a Ukrainian assault on the taken territory as an act of aggression in opposition to Russia itself.

The annexations are Russia’s try to set its good points in stone, at the very least on paper, and scare Ukraine and its Western backers with the prospect of an more and more escalatory battle until they again down — which they present no indicators of doing. The Kremlin paved the way in which for the land-grabs with “referendums,” generally at gunpoint, that Ukraine and Western powers universally dismissed as rigged shams.

“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.”

A Ukrainian counter-offensive 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.

Luhansk and Donetsk – wracked by preventing since separatists there declared independence in 2014 – type the broader Donbas area of jap Ukraine that Putin has lengthy vowed, however up to now failed, to make fully Russian. Peskov mentioned that each Donetsk and Luhansk might be integrated Friday into Russia of their entirety.

All of Kherson and parts of Zaporizhzhia, two different areas being ready for annexation, have been newly occupied within the invasion’s opening section. It’s unclear whether or not the Kremlin will declare all, or simply half, of that occupied territory as Russia’s. Peskov wouldn’t say in a name Friday with reporters.

In the Zaporizhzhia area’s capital, anti-aircraft missiles that Russia has repurposed as ground-attack weapons rained down Friday on individuals who have been ready in vehicles to cross into Russian-occupied territory so they may deliver members of the family again throughout entrance traces, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential workplace, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, mentioned.

The normal prosecutor’s workplace mentioned 25 individuals have been killed and 50 wounded. The strike left deep affect craters and despatched shrapnel tearing by the humanitarian convoy’s lined-up automobiles, killing their passengers. Nearby buildings have been demolished. Trash baggage, blankets and, for one sufferer, a blood-soaked towel, have been used to cowl our bodies.

Russian-installed officers in Zaporizhzhia blamed Ukrainian forces for the strike, however supplied no proof.

Russian strikes have been additionally reported within the metropolis of Dnipro. The regional governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, mentioned at the very least one individual was killed and 5 others have been wounded.

Ukraine’s air power mentioned the southern cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa have 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 haven’t got management of Ukraine’s skies.

Putin was anticipated to give a serious speech on the ceremony to fold Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia into Russia. The Kremlin deliberate for the area’s pro-Moscow directors to signal annexation treaties within the ornate St. George’s Hall of the palace in Moscow that’s Putin’s seat of energy.

Putin additionally issued decrees recognizing the supposed independence of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia areas, steps he beforehand took in February for Luhansk and Donetsk and earlier for Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in the meantime, referred to as an emergency assembly of his National Security and Defense Council and denounced the most recent Russian strikes.

“The enemy rages and seeks revenge for our steadfastness and his failures,” he posted on his Telegram channel. “You will certainly reply. For each misplaced Ukrainian life!”

The U.S. and its allies have promised much more sanctions on Russia and billions of {dollars} in additional assist for Ukraine because the Kremlin duplicates the annexation playbook used for Crimea.

With Ukraine vowing to take again all occupied territory and Russia pledging to defend its good points, threatening nuclear-weapon use and mobilizing an additional 300,000 troops despite 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 news company RIA Novosti, he described the setback as “worrying news.”

”Ukraine’s armed formations,” he said, “are attempting very laborious to spoil our celebration,”