President Putin: The annexation is the will of millions of people
(Baonghean.vn) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and the heads of the Donetsk and Luganks People's Republics, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions have just signed an agreement on joining these regions to Russia.
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President Putin and the leaders of four provinces: Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia signed an agreement to join Russia. Photo: Ria Novosti |
The ceremony will take place at 3:00 p.m. (Moscow time, Hanoi time) in the Kremlin's St. George Hall - where the annexation of Crimea to Russia took place in 2014. The ceremony will be broadcast live on Russia 1.
"People have made a choice. A clear choice. I am sure that the Federal Assembly will support the laws on the adoption and formation in Russia of four new regions, four new subjects of the Russian Federation. Because this is the will of millions of people" - President Vladimir Putin declared.
"I want the Kiev authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me, so that everyone remembers this - the people of Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are our citizens forever," President Putin said.
The Russian leader called on the Ukrainian authorities to immediately extinguish the flames of war and return to the negotiating table. The annexation to Russia was the choice of the people of the four regions, and the Moscow government “did not betray” those wishes.
After the agreements are signed, the text will be sent to the Constitutional Court to determine their compatibility with the basic laws of Russia. On that basis, a draft law on the inclusion of new territories will be drawn up. This draft must be approved by the Russian Senate and the State Duma before being submitted to the President for his signature.
The agreements signed today confirm the formation of new entities within Russia, and change the status of the borders of the Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Now the borders of these four regions become the state borders of the Russian Federation.
From the moment the agreements come into force, all residents of the above regions become citizens of Russia, except for those who, for a certain period of time, wish to retain their previous citizenship. In addition, from the moment the new regions are incorporated into Russia, a transitional period will begin, during which the economic, financial and legal systems in these territories will be brought into line with the system in Russia as a whole, similar to what happened in Crimea in 2014.