Vladimir Putin annexes 4 south-eastern Ukrainian areas

Vladimir Putin annexed 4 areas of south-eastern Ukraine and vowed Russia would use “all of the means at our disposal” to defend them, in an extra escalation of his conflict towards Kyiv.

The Russian president spoke as Ukrainian troops pushed additional east in north-east Donetsk, one of many provinces Moscow plans to annex, coming near surrounding the city of Lyman, a key staging floor for Russian forces.

Putin stated an assault on the 4 areas, which he stated he now thought of a part of his nation’s territory, could be handled as an assault on Russia and met with full power.

“We’ll defend our lands with all of the means at our disposal and do every thing to guard our individuals. That is our nice liberating mission,” he stated in a ceremony on the Kremlin on Friday.

Russia doesn’t management any of the 4 areas in full and has vowed to “liberate” at the least two of them from Ukraine’s grasp as Kyiv presses on with its counter-offensive.

Putin’s speech is the starkest declaration of hostility the Russian chief has made towards the west and signalled how far he was prepared to go seven months into his faltering invasion of Ukraine.

In a blistering broadside towards the west, he informed an viewers of Russia’s political elite that the Kremlin would lead an “anti-colonial motion” to smash US hegemony all over the world.

However Putin served most of his ire for Ukraine’s “actual masters” within the west, which he stated had spent centuries turning the remainder of the world into “vassals” because it unfold its “colonial” and “racist” hegemony.

“The west is on the lookout for new methods to strike towards our nation, to weaken and destroy Russia,” he stated. “They only can’t put up with there being such a giant nation with its territory, wealthy pure assets, and individuals who gained’t reside on anybody else’s guidelines.”