In a solemn ceremony in the Grand Kremlin Palace, President Vladimir Putin, a few minutes behind schedule, announced the annexation of four eastern regions of Ukraine. “It is the wish of millions of citizens. And it is his right,” the Russian president said in a live broadcast. An announcement, which was followed by a few minutes of silence, by the “heroes” who fell in Ukraine, and I know that it materialized with the signing of the annexation acts of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, with the respective heads of the puppet governments installed by Moscow in these four territories, Denis Pushilin, Leonid Pasachnik, Vladimir Saldo and Evgueni Balitsky. After announcing the annexation, he asked kyiv “for a ceasefire. We will do everything possible so that the lives of our citizens are safe.
Parliamentarians and members of the Russian Executive are also present. Before all of them, Putin will deliver a speech to explain the reasons for a decision that kyiv has condemned in advance and has caused rejection within the International Community.
The procedure will be identical or very similar to the one used eight and a half years ago, when on the same stage of the Kremlin, on March 18, 2014, Putin formalized the annexation of Crimea. That was the first step towards destroying relations between Kyiv and Moscowwhich worsened even more when the Russian president unleashed, on February 24, the current offensive by Russian troops on Ukrainian soil.
The annexation of four other Ukrainian provinces, which is now staged in the Kremlin, constitutes another dangerous twist by Putin, not only to Ukraine as a state, but to the world order established after World War II. The Russian president relies on the results of referendums held between September 23 and 27 in Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhiaunrecognized by anyone except himself and the pro-Russian rebels.
Great concentration in the Red Square
It so happens that, after the new annexations, Moscow has already warned Ukraine that continuing its counteroffensive to recover these four areas seized by force and occupied by the Russian Army will be considered a direct attack against its “sovereignty”, with which, as Putin warned on the 21st, when he decreed “partial mobilization”, his country will respond in a devastating way. “When territorial integrity is threatened, Russia uses all means at its disposal, including nuclear weapons. It is not a bluff », he warned then.
The official acts will today be accompanied by a large concentration in the Red Square and surrounding areas of several tens of thousands of people to show their support for the annexations, taken there by force or seduced with some other prebend, according to the media. opponents. There will be a rally, at which Putin is rumored to appear, and a concert. Since this morning, the entire city center around the Kremlin has been closed to traffic and cordoned off by the Police. To access you have to pass through the metal detector arches arranged by the agents.
www.abc.es
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism