PUTIN FINALIZES A FORMAL ANNEXATION OF 15% OF UKRAINE’S TERRITORY
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin “completed the formal annexation of more than 15% of Ukraine on Wednesday just as Russian forces battled to halt a Ukrainian counter-offensive across swathes of the territories,” Reuters reports. “In the biggest expansion of Russian territory in at least half a century, Putin signed laws admitting the [so-called] Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), the [so-called] Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR), Kherson Oblast and Zaporizhzhia Oblast into Russia.”
After holding its sham referendums in Ukraine’s seized regions on Sep. 23-27, Russia announced the annexations. The ballots, according to Western nations and Kyiv, violated international law and were forced and misrepresentative.
