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Russian President Vladimir Putin, ignoring international outrage and the struggles of his military, signed laws Wednesday ratifying the annexation of four Ukraine regions, including two that make up the crucial Donbas region he has targeted since the war began.
“I want the Kyiv authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me, so that everyone remembers this — people living in Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia become our citizens forever,” Putin said.
The paperwork is vague on the boundaries of the land Russia is claiming, but Russian media said Putin annexed about 43,000 square miles. Ukraine, almost the size of Texas, estimates about 15% of its territory was annexed. Some of the land already has been retaken by Ukraine forces in recent weeks, and most of the world does not recognize the annexations.
“The worthless decisions of the terrorist country are not worth the paper they are signed on,” Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukraine President’s Office, said on Telegram.
