Posted on 09/30/2022 8:07:22 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties on Friday to annex four Ukrainian regions partly occupied by his forces, escalating his seven-month war and taking it into an unpredictable new phase.
"This is the will of millions of people," he said in a speech before hundreds of dignitaries in the St George's Hall of the Kremlin. "People living in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region are becoming our compatriots forever."
At a ceremony that Kyiv called a "Kremlin freak show" devoid of legal meaning, Putin delivered a 37-minute diatribe against the West, accusing it of "sheer Satanism," before signing the treaty documents with the Russian-backed heads of the four entities.
They then all clasped hands and chanted "Russia! Russia!" in unison with hundreds of dignitaries, who rose in a standing ovation.
The ceremony took place three days after the completion of hastily staged so-called referendums in which Moscow's proxies in the occupied regions claimed majorities of up to 99% in favor of joining Russia.
Ukraine and Western governments said the votes, announced only 10 days ago, had been conducted at gunpoint and were bogus and illegitimate.
Ukraine, the United States and the head of the United Nations had all said the annexation ceremony would have no legal value.
Putin urged Ukraine to cease military action and return to the negotiating table. Kyiv has vowed to recapture all the lands seized by Russia and said that Russia's decision to annex the territories has destroyed any prospect of talks.
The annexations mean that Russia, which had already seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, now lays claim to some 22% of Ukraine's territory, including parts that it does not control.
The Kremlin leader kept hundreds of assembled dignitaries waiting for 18 minutes before entering the imposing columned hall through a pair of golden doors opened by high-stepping guards, as a fanfare blared.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Putin’s training was in law. He is throwing back in our faces Western rules, made up by the US, in Kosovo independence.
Tell me why this is different.
An independence referendum was held in Kosovo between Sept. 26-30, 1991, then known as the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo. The Provincial Assembly had declared the Republic of Kosova a sovereign and independent state on 22 September 1991.
Over 99% of voters voted in favour of independence, with a turnout of 87%. The referendum was boycotted by Serbs living in the region, who comprised around 10% of the population
Thank God the people in Donetsk and Lugansk now have a chance to live in peace and, soon, won’t have to fear dying daily at the hands of neo-Nazis and Ukrainian nationalist.
And that was after the ethnic Albanians cleansed the rest of Kosovo of ethnic Serbs, Gorani, etc., and the last remaining Jews they didn’t manage to kill off during WWII.
It was also in violation of UNSC res 1244. So much rule of law. The NATO bombing of Serbia was also in violation of the both the NATO and the UN Charters.
I’ve never seen a situation where a country is supposedly suffering one embarrassing defeat after another, with a leader who is on his death bed while at the same time annexing parts of another country, strange times we live in
The EU said that if he did this, they would implement sanctions on another 7 billion euro worth of Russian products.
The US was looking at more sanctions too.
Since there is now no difference between Kherson, Belgorod or Vladivostok, I presume Ukraine can now attack all of them.
So far, Ukraine restrained themselves from attacks on Russian territory, more less.
Now, I presume, Belgorod is in dire strain and I would not feel safe even in Moscow or Vladivostok.
Technically Reclaim, not annex. Lenin gave these areas of Russia to the Ukraine back in the 1920s. Kruschev gave Crimea to the Uraine in the 1950s/ And that was purchased from the Ottoman empire and had been part of Russia longer than the US was a nation.
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