Putin: 'The annexed Ukrainian regions are ours forever'

Russian President Vladimir Putin asked for a minute of silence for what he called the "heroes" fighting in Ukraine and for the "

".

"I want them to hear me in Kiev, to hear me in the West:

," Putin said, opening the signing ceremony of the annexation treaties in Moscow. of the four Ukrainian regions.

Ukraine must "cease fire which began in 2014, we are ready to return to the negotiating table. But the choice" of annexing the population of the four Ukrainian regions is no longer up for discussion.

"We will defend our land with all the means at our disposal".

The Russian president said this about the four Ukrainian regions that are now annexed to Russia.

The Soviet Union has passed and will not return.

But Russians living outside Russia's borders

.

"Love for Russia is an indestructible feeling. That is why even young people born after the tragedy of the fall of the Soviet Union voted" for annexation, Putin added.

ANSA agency

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The Ukrainian president in a video: "The annexation is a farce. The entire territory of our country will be freed from the enemy, the enemy not only of Ukraine, but of life itself, of humanity, of the law and of truth" .

(HANDLE)

Deaf to the protests of the international community, Vladimir Putin has decided to proceed with the annexation of the four Ukrainian territories where the referendums were held that the Western chancelleries have defined as "farces".

The agreements will be signed today with a ceremony in the Kremlin's Hall of St George with the heads of the four entities, and will be accompanied by a popular celebration on Red Square.

A program that contrasts with the scenes of the thousands of Russians fleeing the country to escape the possible call to arms.

The Baltic countries and Poland have already closed their borders to the Russians for weeks, and Finland has now joined them and Norway is ready.

But the exodus continues through the southern borders, especially with Georgia and Kazakhstan, and, further east, with Mongolia.

Yet nothing seems to be able to distract the Kremlin from its plans, to be implemented also through the partial mobilization declared on 21 September.

The first units of the recalled reservists, the Ministry of Defense said, have already been constituted and will be used to "control the liberated territories" in Ukraine.

First of all, therefore, the areas of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which are preparing to become part of the Federation and which Moscow will therefore defend as its own territory.

ANSA agency

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Under the walls of the Kremlin a huge stage was set up for the celebrations in the square, with the inscription 'Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Russia, together forever', in the St. George's hall preparations for the signing of the act of accession and for a speech by the president that his spokesman has already announced as "full-bodied".

It is not difficult to predict its content.

We had a taste yesterday, when Putin spoke by videoconference at a meeting of the heads of the security and intelligence services of the nine former Soviet republics, now members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CSI).

The president re-proposed the scenario that sees Western countries ("our geopolitical opponents" he defined them) committed to sowing chaos in the former Soviet space "

"Italy strongly condemns the illegal and unacceptable annexation by Russia of the four Ukrainian regions

of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and reiterates its full support for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine".

This is the tweet from the Farnesina

ANSA agency

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