Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed legislation formally admitting four Ukrainian regions into Russia, even as his fleeing troops lose control of the regions it illegally annexed as a result of Kiev’s counterattacks.
The documents concluding the annexation, carried out in defiance of international laws, were published on the Russian government’s website on Wednesday morning.
Earlier this week, both chambers of the Russian parliament ratified treaties making the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions part of Russia.
This was followed by Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums” in the four regions, which Ukraine and the West rejected on the sham.
On the ground, Moscow’s war in Ukraine has entered a new, more dangerous phase. Russia is facing mounting backlash as Ukrainian forces retake more and more land in the east and south — the very regions Moscow has been pushing to annex.
Analysts fear the annexation represents an escalation of Putin’s invasion and gives Moscow reason to defend the areas against Ukrainian counterattacks with more drastic measures such as the use of nuclear weapons.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured in Moscow on Tuesday) has signed bills officially admitting four Ukrainian regions to Russia, even as his fleeing troops lose control of the regions it illegally annexed as a result of Kiev’s counterattacks
The four Ukrainian regions Putin is trying to steal are Luhansk and Donetsk to the east and Zaporizhia and Kherson to the south, but his forces are not in full control and fighting continues in all of them — with Ukrainian forces pushing into the areas
The borders of the territories Russia claims are still unclear, but the Kremlin has vowed to defend Russia’s territory – including the newly captured territories – with any means at its disposal, including nuclear weapons.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to the annexation by announcing an accelerated application for NATO membership and officially ruling out talks with Russia for a peace deal.
Zelenskyy’s decree, published on Tuesday, says negotiations with Putin have become impossible after his decision to take over Ukraine’s four regions.
The head of Zelenskyy’s office, Andriy Yermak, wrote on his Telegram channel shortly after Putin signed the annexation that “the worthless decisions of the terrorist country (Russia) are not worth the paper they are signed on.
“A collective insane asylum can continue to live in a fictional world,” he added.
Kiev’s military said on Wednesday it had recaptured more villages in the southern Kherson region as part of its massive counteroffensive.
Task Force South said the Ukrainian flag was raised over the villages of Liubymivka, Khreschenivka, Zolota Balka, Biliaivka, Ukrainka, Velyka and Mala Oleksandrivka.
Despite Putin’s annexation of much of Ukraine’s eastern territory, a stunning Ukrainian counterattack east of Kharkiv has slowed but not stopped, with the town of Lyman now under Kyiv’s control and its forces advancing on the towns of Svatove and Kreminna
In the south-east, Ukraine has also been steadily fighting its way towards the city of Kherson for the past two months and may have made a breakthrough this week after reports that Russian forces had pulled back more than 10 miles
General Ben Hodges, former commander of US forces in Europe, has outlined what he believes is Ukraine’s path to victory against Russia – saying that “Crimea is the price” and the war will end “when the… last Russian soldier goes along the Crimea”. [Kerch bridge, connecting the peninsula with mainland Russia]’ Pictured: A map showing Hodges’ Ukrainian ‘Road to Victory’. Many of the regions marked in red have been annexed by Putin, but his troops are losing ground
On the battlefield, multiple explosions rocked Bila Tserkva on Wednesday morning and sparked fires in so-called infrastructure facilities in the city south of the capital Kyiv, regional leader Oleksiy Kuleba told Telegram.
There are early indications that the city has been attacked by so-called “kamikaze,” or suicide drones, he said. Bila Tserkva is located about 80 km south of Kyiv.
Russia has increasingly used suicide drones in recent weeks, posing a new challenge to Ukraine’s defenses.
The unmanned vehicles can remain airborne for long periods before diving into their targets and detonating their payload at the last moment.
Many of the previous attacks by the Iranian-made drones took place in the south of the country and not near the capital, which has not been attacked for weeks.
In a later post, Kuleba said a total of six Shahed-136 drones hit the city, one of the largest in the region after Kyiv itself. One person was injured in the attacks.
Dozens of rescue workers were on the scene and working hours after the attacks were reported to put out the fires, he said.
Ukrainian soldiers take part in the ceremony of raising the national flag in the recently recaptured town of Lyman, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on October 4, 2022
A BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher fires at Russian positions in the Kharkiv region on Oct 4
Meanwhile, officials in Ukraine said thousands of Russian soldiers have already called a hotline to surrender in a new humiliation for Putin’s battered army.
Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, said that in just a few weeks, around 2,000 people called the I Want To Live hotline to surrender.
Yusov claimed there were calls from soldiers in Ukraine, conscripts still in Russia and some who hadn’t even received a draft order yet to review the procedure.
It comes after Putin ordered 300,000 conscripts sent to the front lines in Ukraine to shore up his failed invasion.
Elsewhere, European Union member countries agreed on another round of sanctions against Russia over its aggression against Ukraine, the Czech EU Presidency announced on Wednesday.
“The ambassadors reached a political agreement on new sanctions against Russia – a strong EU response to Putin’s illegal annexation of Ukrainian lands,” the presidency said on Twitter.
The latest package – the eighth since February’s Russian invasion – is now undergoing a final approval process which, if no objections are raised, will be made public and will come into effect on Thursday.
Russia is suffering heavy casualties trying to hold territory it gained in seven months of war, while Ukraine is retaking territory to the north and south (pictured a destroyed tank in the north).
The remains of a Russian column that tried to flee the town of Lyman despite being surrounded by Ukrainian troops and was destroyed
And in another blow to the Kremlin, Kazakh authorities on Wednesday rejected a request by Russia to expel Ukraine’s ambassador for remarks about the killing of Russians, chiding Moscow for what they called an inappropriate tone between “equal strategic partners.” “.
Russia’s relations with Kazakhstan and some of its other former Soviet allies have been strained during the war in Ukraine, particularly over Putin’s attempts to cancel post-USSR border deals in the east of the country.
Tensions escalated after Ukraine’s ambassador to Astana, Petro Vrublevskiy, said in an August interview with a local blogger, referring to the war in Ukraine: “The more Russians we kill now, the fewer of them our children will have to kill.” .
Russia urged Kazakhstan to expel the diplomat in response, but Astana instead urged Kyiv to replace him, telling him his comments were unacceptable for a country with a large ethnic Russian minority.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that Moscow was “outraged” by the fact that Vrublevsky was still in Astana and summoned the Kazakh ambassador.
Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Aibek Smadiyarov on Wednesday called Zakharova’s tone “not consistent with the nature of allied relations between Kazakhstan and Russia as equal strategic partners,” adding that the Russian ambassador will in turn be summoned to the Kazakh ministry.
Smadiyarov said Vrublevskiy will leave Kazakhstan as soon as a new Ukrainian ambassador is in office.
Kazakhstan has traditionally had close economic and security ties with Russia, but distanced itself from Moscow after invading Ukraine in February.
Astana has called for a peaceful solution to the conflict – which Moscow calls a “special military operation” – and has refused to recognize referenda by which Russia annexed parts of Ukraine.