প্রকাশ: 30/09/2022
Russia
will annex four occupied regions of Ukraine at a ceremony at the Kremlin on
Friday, Moscow said, after President Vladimir Putin threatened he could use
nuclear weapons to defend the territories.
The
Russian leader is expected to deliver a major speech at the event, following
referendums held last week in which four Ukrainian regions voted in a landslide
to join Russia, but which were dismissed as a sham by the West.
In a
presidential decree issued Thursday evening, Putin said he had recognised the
independence of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, paving the way for Moscow to claim
the territories.
Russia
recognised the independence of the two other regions it is preparing to annex
-- Donetsk and Lugansk -- at the end of February.
"I
order the recognition of the state sovereignty and independence" of the
regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, located in southern Ukraine, Putin said in
the decrees.
Putin's
nuclear threats have not deterred a sweeping Ukrainian counter-offensive, which
has been pushing back Russian troops in the east and is on the doorstep of the
Donetsk town of Lyman, which Moscow's forces pummelled for weeks before
capturing it this summer.
Putin has
blamed the conflict in Ukraine on the West and said simmering conflicts in the
former Soviet Union were the result of its collapse.
The
rhetoric built on his now-famous phrase that the fall of the USSR was a
tragedy, and he has recently suggested Moscow should extend again its influence
over the former Soviet region.
- US
rejects claims -
The
Kremlin-installed leaders of the four regions that pleaded to Putin for
annexation this week were gathered in the Russian capital on Thursday, ahead of
the ceremony.
Their
nearly simultaneous requests came after they claimed residents had unanimously
backed the move in hastily organised referendums that were dismissed by Kyiv
and the West as illegal, fraudulent and void.
Ukraine
said the only appropriate response from the West was to hit Russia with more
sanctions and to supply Ukrainian forces with more weapons so they could keep
reclaiming territory.
US
President Joe Biden said Thursday that "the United States will never,
never, never" recognise Russia's claims on Ukraine's sovereign territory.
UN
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also rejected the annexation plans,
condemning them as "a dangerous escalation".
"It
must not be accepted," he said.
The UN Security
Council will vote at 1900 GMT on Friday on a resolution condemning the
referendums, according to France, the council's current president.
But the
resolution -- drafted by the United States and Albania and whose exact contents
are not yet public -- has no chance of passing due to Moscow's veto power,
though it can be presented to the General Assembly after the vote.
Ukraine's
President Volodymyr Zelensky called an "urgent" meeting of his
national security council for Friday, his spokesman said, after the Kremlin
announced the timing of the annexation ceremony.
The four
territories create a crucial land corridor between Russia and the Crimean
peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Together,
all five make up around 20 percent of Ukraine, whose forces in recent weeks
have been clawing back ground.
In the
south, Ukrainian forces have been wresting back territory near Kherson, and
residents of recently recaptured villages described the months spent under
Russian occupation.
"They
robbed and humiliated us," 72-year-old Maria Syzhuk said in the village of
Vysokopillya, over the dull thuds of artillery from both sides -- mostly in the
distance, but sometimes a little closer.
Ukrainian
troops in particular have been progressing in the eastern Kharkiv region and recapturing
territory in Donetsk. Military observers say Kyiv's forces are close to
capturing Lyman.
- 'I don't
want to kill people' -
Moscow's
forces are striking back along the entire frontline and officials in Kyiv said
Thursday that Russian bombardment had killed three in the Dnipropetrovsk
region, killed five in Donetsk and wounded seven in the Kharkiv region.
Along with
threats to use nuclear weapons, Putin announced a mobilisation of hundreds of
thousands of Russians to bolster Moscow's army in Ukraine, sparking
demonstrations and an exodus of men abroad.
Putin on
Thursday called for mistakes with the draft to be "corrected", as
discontent grows over the often chaotic conscription push.
Finland's
Vaalimaa crossing has been flooded with new arrivals recently. Helsinki
announced on Thursday it would close its border from midnight to Russians
holding European tourism visas for the Schengen zone.
"I
just made it through, I don't know how the others will get through,"
Andrei Stepanov, a 49-year-old Russian, told AFP.
On a
bright morning in Mongolia's capital Ulaanbaatar, a young Russian fleeing
Moscow's first military call-up since World War II had a stark answer for why
he had left: "I don't want to kill people."
"It
was very difficult to leave everything behind -- home, motherland, my relatives
-- but it's better than killing people," the man in his 20s told AFP,
speaking on condition of anonymity.
Belarus
was preparing to host 20,000 Russian soldiers, converting warehouses, hangars
and abandoned farms into military accommodations, Ukraine's ministry of defence
said on Thursday.
To bolster
Ukraine, the United States pledged more money on Thursday, with the Senate
approving $12 billion in new economic and military aid as part of a stopgap
budget extension.
The
European Commission has proposed fresh sanctions targeting Russian exports
worth seven billion euros, an oil price cap, an expanded travel blacklist and
asset freezes.
প্রধান সম্পাদকঃ সৈয়দ বোরহান কবীর
ক্রিয়েটিভ মিডিয়া লিমিটেডের অঙ্গ প্রতিষ্ঠান
বার্তা এবং বাণিজ্যিক কার্যালয়ঃ ২/৩ , ব্লক - ডি , লালমাটিয়া , ঢাকা -১২০৭
নিবন্ধিত ঠিকানাঃ বাড়ি# ৪৩ (লেভেল-৫) , রোড#১৬ নতুন (পুরাতন ২৭) , ধানমন্ডি , ঢাকা- ১২০৯
ফোনঃ +৮৮-০২৯১২৩৬৭৭