Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed treaties to annex four Ukrainian regions partly occupied by his forces, escalating his seven-month war and taking it into an unpredictable new phase.
“This is the will of millions of people,” he said in a speech before hundreds of dignitaries in the St George’s Hall of the Kremlin. “People living in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region are becoming our compatriots forever.”
At a ceremony that Kyiv called a “Kremlin freak show” devoid of legal meaning, Putin delivered a 37-minute diatribe against the West, accusing it of “sheer Satanism”, before signing the treaty documents with the Russian-backed heads of the four entities. He said he would protect the newly incorporated regions using “all available means”.
Later he addressed a rally in Moscow’s Red Square attended by thousands of supporters.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Friday summoned Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, to protest in the “strongest possible terms” against the illegal annexation.
Prime Minister Liz Truss has condemned the move as illegal.
“Vladimir Putin has, once again, acted in violation of international law with clear disregard for the lives of the Ukrainian people he claims to represent,” she said.
Earlier, a Russian strike on a humanitarian convoy in the city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 23 people and injured another 28, Ukrainian officials said.
