[Image credit: CN Traveller]

MOSCOW: Russia will formally annex four regions of Ukrayina its troops occupy at a grand ceremony in Moscow on Friday (today), the Kremlin has proclaimed when it suggested using nuclear weapons to defend the territories. The threats from senior Russian officials haven't deterred a sweeping counter-offensive from Kyiv, which has been pushing back Russian troops within the east and is edging nearer the Donetsk region city of Lyman that Moscow’s forces battered for weeks to completely capture. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov aforesaid the annexation would be formalized at a ceremony in the Kremlin. The Russian leader will create a “major” speech, he added. “Tomorrow in Saint George’s Hall at the Grand Kremlin Palace at 15:00 (1200 GMT) a signing ceremony will ensue on the incorporation of the new territories into Russia,” Peskov told reporters.

The Kremlin-installed leaders of the four regions were gathered in Moscow on Thursday, a day after pro-Moscow authorities had appealed to Putin directly to integrate the territories into Russia. Their nearly simultaneous requests to the Kremlin came after the four regions claimed residents had unanimously backed the move in hurriedly organized referendums that were fired by Kyiv and also the West as illegal, fraudulent, and void. Zelensky’s warning Ukrayina when the so-called referendums aforesaid the solely applicable response from the West was to hit Russia with additional sanctions and to provide Ukrainian forces with more weapons to stay reclaiming territory. “Ukraine cannot and will not tolerate any makes attempt by Russia to seize any part of our land,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Wednesday. 

The four territories — Kherson and Zaporizhzhia within the south; Don­etsk and Lugansk in the east — produce a vital land passageway between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014. Together, all 5 frames around 20 % of Ukrayina, whose forces in recent weeks are clawing background. ‘Dangerous increase If Russia moves ahead with its plans to annex four Ukrainian regions, it might mark a “dangerous escalation” that may jeopardize the prospects for peace within the region, the united nations secretary-general aforesaid on Thursday. “Any call to proceed with the annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine would haven't any legal worth and deserves to be condemned,” Antonio Guterres told reporters in Washington. “Any decision by Russia to go forwards can any jeopardize the prospects for peace,” Guterres said.