Vladimir Putin illegally seizes four Ukrainian regions he vows to defend 'by any means'

 

 Russian President Vladimir Putin has illegally annexed four Ukrainian regions and vowed to use "all the power and all the means" at his disposal to defend them.
"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.
The ceremony took place three days after the completion of hastily staged referendums in which Moscow's proxies in the occupied regions claimed majorities of up to 99% in favour of joining Russia.
Ukraine and Western governments described those votes as bogus, illegitimate and conducted at gunpoint.

In response, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenski has signed Ukraine's application for 'accelerated accession to NATO'. He said Ukraine was de facto part of NATO alliance but was now looking to urgently make his country's membership in accordance with law.
“Today, Ukraine is applying to make it de jure… We are taking our decisive step by signing Ukraine's application for accelerated accession to NATO," he said.
Zelenski's defiant move came after Putin earlier today declared that Russia had four new regions.
He said: "Referendums have taken place ... their results are well-known."
"People have made their choice ... This is an inalienable right, which is enshrined in Article 1 of the U.N. Charter. People living in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region are becoming our compatriots forever." Putin also planned extensive celebrations including a concert in Moscow’s Red Square, which was televised live.
He told invited spectators watching a televised patriotic pop concert on Moscow's Red Square on Friday that Russia would achieve victory in its seven-month-old military campaign with Ukraine.
Flanked by the leaders of their Russian-backed administrations, with the multicoloured spires of the 16th-century St Basil's Cathedral as the backdrop, Putin said people in the regions had made a choice to rejoin their "historic motherland". He said Russia would do everything to support them, boost their security and rebuild their economies.
"Welcome home!" he said, prompting chants of "Russia! Russia!" from the flag-waving crowd in the vast square.
The event is echoed the pomp seen after the annexation of Crimea eight years ago.
Putin was seen on stage singing along with a large crowd, as the event aimed at rousing support for men called to fight against Ukraine - as thousands of wives, mothers, daughters and loved ones slam his partial mobilisation.
The tyrant performed a bizarre gesture as he walked out on stage to formally announce the illegal annexation. He was greeted by four officials, each representing one of the territories, and tried to shake all eight hands at once.
The diminutive despot looks tiny compared to the four towering chiefs of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson as they all put their hands in a stack like a sports team.
The ritual is particularly bizarre when compared to Putin's previous appearances, where he would purposefully host dignitaries from either side of a comically large table.
In his speech, the warmonger claimed the peoples of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia had decided to join the Russian Federation.