Free Republic

Russian president Vladimir Putin will hold a ceremony “annexing” four Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine today (in a move widely seen as illegitimate), and will also give a speech. Get the latest on Putin’s annexation ceremony and speech in our LIVE COVERAGE.The four Ukrainian territories which Putin is planning to annex (i.e. declare to be parts of Russia) are Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. Most of the world will not recognize the purported Russian annexation as legitimate, and will instead see it as Putin attempting to take by force another country’s sovereign territory. Russia last week held what are widely believed...