Russia-Ukraine war live: ‘There are four new areas of Russia,’ says Putin ahead of formal annexation of occupied Ukraine territories

Putin says Russia is a great country with a great civilisation that refuses to live under the “false rules” dictated by the west.

He accuses the west of believing that “their civilisation and their neo-liberal culture is the golden standard to everyone else”, while “unilaterally deciding who has the right to self-determination and who doesn’t”.

Western countries were “very angry” at the choice of people in Crimea, he claims, referring to the 2014 so-called referendum that most of the world condemned as illegal.

“That’s why they believe that people do not have the right to have self-determination”.

Putin says:

The Western elites have always been like this. They have been colonisers and they remain colonisers, they discriminate and they they distinguish between the first class of nations and second class nations.

That is why there is “Russophobia” that is being spread all over the west, he says.

Putin echoes previous claims that the west is seeking to weaken Russia and bring it to its knees ever since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The west is looking new opportunities to hit us and they always dreamt about breaking our state into smaller states who will be fighting against each other.

He accuses the west of being “greedy” and wanting Russia to be in its “colony”. The west is “prepared to do everything using this neo-colonial system to rob all other countries in the world”, he says.

Putin adds:

They don’t want to see us a free society. They want to see us as a crowd of slaves.

To loud applause inside the Kremlin hall, he declares:

They don’t need Russia. We need Russia!

Putin goes on to call on Ukraine to immediately cease all military actions and the war “that they began in 2014”.

Kyiv must “come back to the negotiation table”, Putin says.

We are open to this and we stated that many times.

But Ukrainian authorities must “respect the expression of the will of the people”, Putin says, referencing the fake referendums held in the Ukrainian territories over the past week.

We will protect our land using all our forces and we will do everything to ensure people’s seucirties.

Putin says the incorporation of the four Ukrainian regions into Russia is the “choice of millions of people” who share a “common history” with the Russian Federation.

The “destruction” of the Soviet Union “destroyed the connections between different parts” of the country, Putin continues.

Despite all the difficulties, they have carried through this love for Russia, and this feeling cannot be exterminated by anyone.

Putin says he is “not aiming” to return to the past and to rebuild the Soviet Union but claims there is “nothing stronger than the will of these people to come back to their historic roots”.

President Vladimir Putin has declared there are four new regions of Russia, as he announced the formal annexation of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.

He says the incorporation of these four regions “is the will of millions of people” and it is their “integral right” as stated in the UN charter.

Putin goes on to claim that the people of Donbas have been “victims of inhumane terrorist attacks conducted by the Kyiv regime”.

The Russian leader has long claimed that Ukraine is targeting Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine, and repeatedly made the unfounded accusation that Ukraine has carried out genocide in the east of the country.

He asks for a minute’s silence to be held to remember the soldiers and “heroes of the Great Russia” who have died during the “special operation” in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin is now speaking at the signing ceremony in the Kremlin to mark the formal annexation of four Ukrainian regions – Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk.

The Russian president begins by talking about the so-called “referendums” held over the last week in order for Moscow to claim a mandate for Putin’s territorial claims.

Putin claims the “results have come through and the results are known”. He says:

People have made their choice, and it’s definitive choice.

Ukraine and the west have denounced the fake referendums and said they will never recognise their legitimacy.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has arrived at a signing ceremony in Moscow as he formally annexes four more areas of Ukraine.

Putin will preside over the signing ceremony with the Russian-installed heads of the four regions in the Kremlin, where he will sign into law the annexations of four Ukrainian regions – Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russia held fake referendums in these four partially-occupied areas of Ukraine over the last week in order to claim a mandate for the territorial claims.

It comes after the Kremlin announced on Thursday that Putin had recognised Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as independent territories. This is an intermediary step needed before he can go ahead with plans to unilaterally declare on Friday that they are part of Russia.

In February, Putin recognised the independence of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russian state TV commentators appear to be as unclear as the Kremlin as to the exact borders of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – two of the four Ukrainian regions that President Vladimir Putin intends to annex in the next hour.

Russian officials are already seated in the Kremlin’s St George’s Hall ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s speech to mark the annexation of four Ukrainian regions.

From the Financial Times’ Max Seddon:

The head of the Russian Orthodox church, Patriarch Kirill, has tested positive for Covid-19, his church has said.

The 75-year-old Putin ally will be absent from the signing ceremony in Moscow where the Russian president will sign into law the annexations of the four Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk.

“All planned meetings and trips in the coming days of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill are canceled,” the church said in a statement, adding that he needed “bed rest and isolation”.

A Russian-installed official in the southern Kherson region of Ukraine has been killed in a Ukrainian missile strike, according to Russian state media.

Alexei Katerinichev, who served as the first deputy head for security of the Kremlin-appointed administration of the Kherson region, was killed on Friday, Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Moscow-controlled region, said.

Katerinichev was killed in a pinpoint strike by Ukraine using the US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars), Stremousov said.

The Russian state-owned news agency Tass cited Stremousov as saying:

Katerinichev died as a result of a pinpoint strike from Himars. Two rockets hit the house in which he was.

Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, has accused Vladimir Putin of theft and urged the EU to step up sanctions including a cap on the price of gas.

Kallas said:

Let’s look at the magnitude of Russia’s illegal annexation. Russia will announce that around 20% of Ukraine’s territory is annexed to Russia. It is the size of 108 800km2 – this is comparable to Austria and Belgium combined. Or Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands combined. Or 30% of Germany. Or the size of the Republic of Korea. If you add Crimea to it, the territory is comparable to three Belgiums and the Netherlands combined. And around 40% of Germany.

And let’s call things with the right names. Russia tries to rewrite the map of Europe. It’s a land grab. It’s theft. Putin hopes to add legitimacy to his invasion with this step. The international community will never recognise it.

Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has said “good news” will be announced soon following a call with the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin.

The pair discussed ways of strengthening Ukraine’s capacities during the call, Reznikov added.

He also spoke about the visit to Ukraine by Britain’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace.

Wallace also tweeted about the visit, where he reiterated the UK’s support for Kyiv and vowed that Britain would never recognise Russia’s “illegal” annexations in Ukraine.

Just hours before Vladimir Putin was due to sign into law the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, it was not clear exactly what territories those would include.

Speaking to reporters, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said attacks against any part of the swathe of Ukraine that Putin was about to annex would be considered aggression against Russia itself.

Russia is laying claim to about 109,000 sq km (42,000 sq miles) of Ukrainian territory, or about 18%, in addition to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. If Russia could establish control over the whole area it claims, Putin would have annexed around 22% of Ukraine.

But Russian forces do not control all of that territory. Earlier today, the head of the Moscow-installed administration in east Ukraine’s Donetsk region admitted that the Russian stronghold of Lyman is “semi-encircled” by the Ukrainian army.

Peskov said the whole of the Donetsk region would become part of Russia, but he was less clear about whether or not Russia would lay claim to the whole of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Russia currently controls about 70% of Zaporizhzhia region.

He told reporters:

We will clarify everything today.

Vladimir Putin has notified the Russian parliament of his plans to annex four regions of Ukraine into Russia, the head of the State Duma said.

Vyacheslav Volodin, a key Putin ally, said Putin had informed the parliament of official requests by the regions – a technical step towards Russia’s annexation of the territories.

Putin is due to sign into law the annexations of four Ukrainian regions – Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk – in a signing ceremony in Moscow this afternoon.