World

Putin Announces Ukraine Annexation, Calling West the Enemy


President Vladimir V. Putin on Friday asserted that Russia would annex four regions of Ukraine and criticized the United States as “Satanism,” in a speech marking an escalation in Moscow’s war against Russia. Ukraine. In explicit confrontational terms, he suggested that Russia was fighting an existential battle with Western elites he saw as the “enemy”.

Addressing hundreds of Russian lawmakers and governors in a large Kremlin hall, Putin said that residents of four regions – which are still partially controlled by Ukrainian forces – would become citizens of Russia. “forever”. He then held a signing ceremony with Russian-installed heads of state in those areas to begin the formal annexation process, before joining hands and chanting “Russia! Russia!”

The Biden administration quickly condemned the takeovers, saying they had “no legitimacy” and issued a new round of sanctions on Russia’s technology and defense industries as punishment for the actions. Moscow’s action.

Putin’s speech came amid Russia’s defeat on the battlefield, where Ukrainian forces have won stunning victories in recent weeks in the east. As the Russian leader spoke, Ukrainian officials said their troops were getting closer to encirclement The Russian-occupied town of Lyman, An important strategic center in the Donetsk region lies within territory that Putin is claiming.

Even by Mr. Putin’s increasingly antagonistic standards, the speech was an extraordinary combination of shame and intimidation, blending intrigue against a “new colonial system” led by the US. with a call for the world to see Russia as the leader of a revolt against American power. .

He called the “rulers of the so-called West” an “enemy” – a word he rarely used to refer to the West – and expressed an angry and defiant tone. And he again raised the specter of nuclear weapons, which the Kremlin has made veiled threats to use, noting puzzlingly that the atomic bombs the United States dropped on Japan The 1945 edition “set a precedent”.

“It’s not just Western elites that deny national sovereignty and international law,” he said in the 37-minute speech. “Their hegemony is marked by totalitarianism, autocracy and racism.”

Western leaders have denounced Russia’s annexation as illegitimate and earlier “referendums” – intended to show strong local support for Russia’s accession – as fraud cheat. “The United States will always respect Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders,” said President Biden.

At the United Nations Security Council, 10 out of 15 countries voted on Friday in favor of a US-Albanian resolution condemning Moscow’s actions, but Russia exercises the veto power it holds as is a permanent member. Mr. Putin’s occasional allies, China and India, have expressed growing unease with his war in Ukraine, being among four countries abstaining; only Russia voted against the resolution.

The Ukrainian government has rejected Mr. Putin’s claims and vowed to recapture Russian-held territory in the east and south. “Everything will be Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelensky Written on Friday on the social network Telegram.

In a video, Mr Zelensky accused the Kremlin of trying to “steal something that doesn’t belong to him”, adding that “Ukraine will not allow it”.

He also announced that he was fast track his country’s application to join NATO – a move that Russia vehemently opposes and encounters major barriers, as joining the alliance requires the unanimous consent of all 30 member states.

Putin stressed that Russia’s position on the annexation of the four territories is non-negotiable, adding that Russia will defend them “with all the forces and means at our disposal.” .

“I call on the Kyiv regime to cease fire and all military action immediately, and” return to the negotiating table. “

“But we will not discuss the decisions of the people of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson,” he continued, referring to the annexation of four Ukrainian regions. “It was done. Russia will not betray it.”

Earlier on Friday, Russia launched one of its deadliest attacks on Ukrainian civilians in weeks with an air strike in the Zaporizhzhia region, one of which Russia says it is annexing. Ukraine’s prosecutor general said that the attack left 25 people dead and 66 others injured. It was part of a series of air strikes on Ukrainian towns just hours before Putin spoke.

“The United States and its allies will not be intimidated by Putin nor by his reckless words and threats,” Biden said at the White House. But for Washington and its European allies, Putin’s decision to escalate rhetoric, while affirming his willingness to negotiate, poses difficult choices about how much direct confrontation they are willing to risk. dangerous to Moscow.

The military draft Putin announced last week means he will soon have more troops to send to the front lines, while his claims of an existential conflict appear to be designed to prepare prepared for his people for the trying times ahead.

“The West has to think what the ultimate price they are willing to pay for Ukraine,” said Alexander Baunov, an expert on Russian international policy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “And that’s a very serious question because we don’t know the further appeal to Putin’s Russia.”

But Mr. Putin faces major challenges of his own. Conscription has proven to be so unpopular that on Thursday he took the rare step recorded on national television his government’s mistake in the way it was done.

Tens of thousands of young men are fleeing Russia and serving in military service, despite mile-long lines on the borders with Georgia and Kazakhstan, a signal that many Russians are not buying Putin’s arguments for the invasion of Ukraine. . And the draft’s turbulence posed another setback for Russia’s sanctioned economy.

Putin’s response on Friday was to respond with threats, mockery and conspiracy theories. In the evening, he appeared at a concert and rally in Red Square, standing in front of St. Basil, led the crowd in a song “Hooray! Acclaim! Acclaim!”

“Truth is behind us, and truth has power, which means victory!” Mr. Putin said at the end of his brief speech at the rally, borrowing a catchphrase from a 2000 Russian crime film. “Victory will be ours!”

In his speech at the Kremlin, Putin made the conflict with the West even more acute than before, drawing on centuries of Western military actions to denounce the US-led world order. leadership is basically evil, corrupt and placed on the shoulders of Russia. destruction.

“The suppression of freedom is portraying a reverse religion, of real Satanism,” Putin said, asserting that Western liberal values ​​on issues like nature Gender identity means “rejecting people”.

However, Putin offered some new details on what is now perhaps the biggest concern in Western capitals – whether, and when, he can use weapons of mass destruction. mass to force Ukraine to surrender or not. His spokesman said earlier in the day that after the four regions were merged – a move that hardly any other country could recognize – an attack on those areas would be considered a attack on Russia.

Without being blunt, Mr. Putin hinted that the role of nuclear weapons in war was on his mind. Putin described the West as “deceptive and hypocritical,” noting that the United States was the only country that used nuclear weapons in war. Then he added: “They’ve set a precedent, by the way.”

Mr. Putin attracted three main audiences. To the Russians, he sought to justify the increasing difficulty his war had caused by emphasizing that they were fighting for their survival. To the West, he worked to announce his determination that he would not be punished or delivered weapons to Ukraine, and would continue to fight – with the veiled threat posed by his vast nuclear arsenal. Russian giant.

And with the rest of the world, Mr. Putin has sought to make himself the leader of a global movement against “Western racists” who he says are imposing American hegemony. According to him, the West has not changed from centuries ago when it brutally invaded other countries and waged war for economic advantage.

He stressed that Western countries “have no moral right” to condemn the annexation of parts of Ukraine.

“The Western elites are still the same settlers as before,” Putin said. “They have divided the world into their vassals – the so-called civilized nations – and all others.”

When Mr. Putin spoke, a crowd gathered on Red Square for the concert and rally. Russian media report which universities in Moscow have guided students to study. Pro-Kremlin pop performers performed nationalist songs on stage that read “Russia!” and there are banners that say “Everybody’s Choice!” and “Together forever!”

At one point, a young woman in an orange shirt took to the stage, describing herself as a volunteer helping people in Russian-occupied Ukraine. She said her husband was drafted a week ago.

“I don’t wipe and will wait for him and support him,” she said. Unable to hold back her tears, she added: “I urge you, women: to support your husbands, sons and fathers. Everything will be fine.”

Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting.

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