On the anniversary of the Ukraine war, Russia is making a big splash: the Duma is planning a special session, and Putin is giving a speech.
News ticker.
Russia's parliament
with
special session
: It should go to annexed areas in Ukraine.
Putin
plans big
speech
: address on the state of the nation has been postponed again and again.
Lavrov's
speech to
the Duma
: It's about "key areas of foreign policy"
This
news ticker
on
diplomatic events in the Ukraine war
is continuously updated.
MOSCOW - The Russian parliament has announced a special session to deal with the areas in Ukraine annexed by Russia.
This is reported by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti.
Vyacheslav Timchenko, a member of the Russian House of Lords, was quoted as saying that the unscheduled meeting next Wednesday (February 22) will deal with "laws for the integration of the new regions into Russia's legal framework".
In October 2022, after six months of bloody fighting in the Ukraine war, Russia annexed four regions of the neighboring country.
This happened under international protest and in violation of international law.
According to the Kremlin, the Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk have since belonged to Russia.
Ukraine war: Putin wants to give a big speech
The day before the session - Tuesday, February 21 - Russian President Vladimir Putin will address the Federal Assembly on the state of the nation.
This was announced by spokesman Dimitri Peskov last week, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
Peskov said Putin will address the "current situation," including the "military special operation" in Ukraine.
Putin's state of the nation address had been repeatedly postponed and last took place in April 2021.
As reported by the independent Russian news portal
Meduza
and citing state media, a large concert and a rally in Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium, Russia's largest football stadium, is to follow the next day.
Putin spoke there in March 2022 - at that time the TV broadcast abruptly ended.
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Vladimir Putin is planning his first state-of-the-nation speech during the Ukraine war.
© IMAGO/Mikhail Metzel
War in Ukraine: Lavrov delivers speech before Duma
According to a report by the Russian state news agency TASS, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will also give a speech before the Russian State Duma, without giving a specific date.
He will discuss "key areas of the country's foreign policy" with the parliamentarians.
Lavrov last spoke before the Duma in January 2022, a few weeks before the start of the Ukraine war.
At the time, Lavrov warned against the West inciting Ukraine to provoke Russia - and announced "profound negative changes in world politics".
(smu)
List of rubrics: © Sergei Guneyev/AFP