Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law measures that claim to annex four Ukrainian regions to the Russian Federation.
The alleged annexations of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson are illegal under international law.
Leaders around the world have said they are the result of “fake” referendums held at gunpoint and will never be recognized.
However, the move is an important step in Russia’s faltering effort to take control of Ukraine, with Putin claiming the will of occupied Ukrainians is to belong to Russia – offering a false pretext for his efforts to claim the occupied territories as Moscow’s. .
Western officials have previously suggested that Putin will likely try to recast Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the four regions and elsewhere as an attack on Russian sovereignty.
Context
Russia does not fully control the regions it claims to have annexed and Moscow is losing territory to the Ukrainian military in the south and east of the country every day. In some areas, like Kherson, these losses are occurring at a rapid pace.
The Kremlin doesn’t even seem to be clear on the borders of the territory it’s annexing. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that “we will continue to consult the population of these regions”.
A Ukrainian regional official in the Zaporizhzhia region said on Tuesday that Russia was trying to establish a “state border” at the Vasylivka checkpoint, which separates Russian-held territory from the rest of Ukraine, including the regional capital. from Zaporizhzhia.
Source: CNN Brasil
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