President Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions. This is the will of millions! - declared Russian President Vladimir Putin before officially annexing the four Ukrainian regions.
The president added that he “considers all the men who fought and died in this special operation to be heroes. They are the pride of Russia." - then he asked the participants of the ceremony to observe a minute of silence to remember the deceased.
Although on the night of Friday, Russia only recognized the independence of the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia, on Friday afternoon it decided to annex four regions - in addition to the mentioned regions, the separatist People's Republic of Donetsk and Luhansk. Moscow explained its decision with the results of the "referendum" that started last week Friday and lasted until Tuesday, but no one but them accepts its legitimacy.
The United States will never, ever recognize Russia's claim to sovereign Ukrainian territories, US President Joe Biden said Thursday evening.
In an interview the other day, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated similarly: - Germany does not recognize the results of the referendums held in the territories of eastern Ukraine under Russian occupation and on joining Russia.
From the Russian point of view, these were valid and effective, since the participation was between 63 and 86 percent, and 87 and 99 percent of the respondents were in favor of annexing the territories to Russia.
At the same time, in addition to the international illegitimacy of the referendum, the results do not reflect the fact that many people fled the mentioned areas due to war and occupation, and that Russia does not "rule" all of the four areas. The separatist Luhansk People's Republic is the only county that is fully under Russian influence, but in the case of Donetsk, this means roughly only half of the county.
After the "referendums", Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that
"the legal status of the Donetsk basin and other areas of Ukraine under Russian control will fundamentally change as a result of the referendum held there, which will entail, among other things, measures to guarantee security".
While on Friday, he already confirmed that the Ukrainian attacks on the "new territories" will be interpreted by Moscow as aggression against itself.
In a previous interview given to our newspaper, Zoltán Szenes, professor emeritus of the National University of Public Service and president of the Hungarian Military Society, said in this regard:
If the four counties in question are declared Russian territory, then from the Russian point of view there will be a legal basis for Moscow to classify the current "special military operation" as a war of national defense
Then he added:
"Neither in 2014, when the Crimean Peninsula was annexed, nor now, did the Western leaders undertake an open confrontation between the West and Russia, as Moscow has a heavy trump card in its hands, namely nuclear weapons," he underlined.
However, the expert believes that the threat of nuclear weapons is only a rhetorical move on the part of the Russians and that they would not resort to them in practice.
Source: Hungarian Nation
Featured image: MTI/EPA/Sputnik/Kremlin/Pool/Pavel Bednyakov