The President of Russia, Vladimir Putinhas used the UN Statute to justify the annexation of the occupied territories to Russia of the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and of the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, invaded by Russian forces in the framework of the war in Ukraine. There is no way back, has made clear.
From the Grand Kremlin Palace, Putin has called for an “immediate” cessation of military activity after the “great liberating mission of our people” and has culminated his blackmail against Ukraine by warning kyiv that “you have to respect this wish because it is the only way to peace”
The Russian president has incorporated these territories into the Russian Federation violating international law in the middle of a war, between pressure to go to the polls and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing from these areas. With this public statement by Putin a new step in its sovereignist offensive on Ukraineignoring the warnings of Western governments and the UN.
[Vladímir Putin dirige a sus generales en Ucrania y provoca el enfado entre los oficiales por las derrotas]
In fact, Neither Ukraine nor Western governments validate the referendums, while Moscow intends to use them to legitimize its occupation, as it did in 2014 with the Crimean peninsula. The Kremlin had already made it clear that the hypothetical annexation of the four territories, occupied during the war, would be quick.
Self-determination of peoples
Despite this, Russia has annexed more than 15% of the Ukrainian territory with a simple signature. “Citizens have made their choice and Russia will not let them down. We will do whatever it takes to keep our citizens’ lives safe“, has warned Volodimir Zelensky.
Vladimir Putin has been “sure” that Parliament will approve this annexation because “it is the wish of millions of citizens.” At this point, he has assured that the annexation of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia is completely legal and is protected by the NATO Statute.
[Al menos 25 civiles muertos en un ataque ruso contra un convoy humanitario en Zaporiyia]
“This is a right that appears in the first clause of the UN Statute that speaks of the self-determination of peoples and of the historical union that unites our ancestors who defended Russia”, he stated.
Putin has valued the results of the referendums which, according to the Russian Electoral Commission, have shown overwhelming support for Russia’s annexation of these regions with figures ranging between 96.75 and 98.7% in favor of the ‘Yes’.
On this point, he has denounced that during the referendums the citizens “they were threatened with death”ignoring the dozens of videos and images of Russian soldiers breaking into houses in the occupied territories forcing the inhabitants of Donbas, Kherson and Zaporizhia to vote.
“They will always be from Russia”
“The citizens of these areas have gone to vote scared. But I want them to hear it in kyiv and in the West: ‘I want all the citizens of Donbas, Kherson and Zaporizhia to know that they will be our citizens, of Russia, forever.”
In a lengthy speech, Putin explained that “We will always be on the side of the heroes of 2014, of those who did not surrender to the fascist coup”. “They are women, men, Russians, Ukrainians… They are our heroes, heroes of the Great Mother Russia,” he said. in the presence of the main authorities of the country and the pro-Russian leaders of the four Ukrainian regions in the St. George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace.
The mandatary went back to soviet times and has appealed to tradition to defend that, outside of Russia, there are those who want to “return to their historical homeland”. Putin has pointed out that the ‘lhe disintegration of the USSR was a catastrophe”, just like “when the borders were drawn after the Revolution”.
“Our great country was disintegrated and the peoples did not even understand what was happening. Now the USSR does not exist and the past is not going to come back nor are we trying to, it is not our ambition. There is nothing stronger than the desire of these people to return to their historic homeland,” he said, clearly referring to the inhabitants of Donetsk and Lugansk and the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions.
Nuclear weapons
He has also reminded the “martyrs” who have lost their lives “victims of the kyiv regime“, including the Russian soldiers who have died since the beginning of the invasion in February, and has called on the Ukrainian authorities to accept a ceasefire and return to the negotiating table.
Putin has advocated “protect freedom” against those who seek “world sovereignty” and act with “double standards”. “The West talks about an international order based on rules, but where do these rules come from?he raised to applause.
“They don’t see us as a free society,” but as “a multitude of slaves”he added, accusing “greedy” Western governments of acting for their own benefit.
In this sense, he has warned that NATO’s non-expansion commitments in Eastern Europe have turned out to be a “deception”, as well as the agreements to stop the development of weapons. “The United States is the only country in the world that used nuclear weapons twice”he recalled, referring to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
