Russian deputies unanimously approved Monday, October 3 the law on the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, a decision which had already been approved by President Vladimir Putin and sparked a shower of international condemnation.
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The deputies of the Duma, the lower house of Parliament, all voted in favor of the annexation of the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk (eastern Ukraine), as well as those of Kherson and Zaporizhya (south), according to the live broadcast of the voting ceremony on Russian television.
Neither abstention nor vote against were registered.
"Accelerated Membership"
President Vladimir Putin signed the annexation of four Ukrainian territories last Friday during a ceremony in the Kremlin, alongside the pro-Russian leaders of these four regions, partly or almost entirely occupied by Moscow.
Ukraine responded by asking for “
accelerated membership
” of NATO and declaring that it would not negotiate with Moscow as long as Vladimir Putin is president.
A few minutes before the vote in Parliament, the head of Russian diplomacy Sergey Lavrov addressed the deputies, asking them to support the law supposed, according to him, to protect Russian culture, language and borders.
“
We are not responding to imaginary threats, we are defending our borders, our homeland and our people
,” he told the deputies.
Sergei Lavrov also accused the United States of rallying all Western countries to support kyiv against Moscow.
"
The United States has subjugated almost the entire collective West, mobilizing it to turn Ukraine into an instrument of war against Russia
," he said.
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The annexations of these Ukrainian regions come after seven months of Russian offensive in Ukraine and emergency "
referendums
" organized in the occupied regions, which have been denounced as "
simulacra
" by Kiev and its allies.
Russia already annexed Crimea, a peninsula in southern Ukraine, in 2014.