(ANSA) - ROME, DECEMBER 20 - "The situation in the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, in the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia is extremely difficult": said Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday evening on the occasion of Security Services Day.
The Guardian reports it recalling that Moscow illegally annexed these four Ukrainian regions in September.
Putin also ordered the Federal Security Services (FSB) to step up surveillance of Russian society and the country's borders to counter what he considers "the emergence of new threats" from abroad.
(HANDLE).