"People living in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region are becoming our compatriots forever. We will defend our land with all our strength and all our means."
Russian President Vladimir Putin
A defiant Vladimir Putin proclaimed Russia's annexation of a swathe of Ukraine in a pomp-filled Kremlin ceremony yesterday, promising Moscow would triumph in its "special military operation" against Kyiv even as some of his troops faced potential defeat.
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The Russian president's proclamation of Russian rule over about 15 percent of Ukraine -- the biggest annexation in Europe since the second World War -- has been firmly rejected by Western countries and even many of Russia's close allies.
The declaration has been condemned by the West and prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to request fast-track Nato membership.
In one of the toughest anti-American speeches he has delivered in more than two decades in power, Putin signalled he was ready to continue a battle for a "greater historical Russia" using whatever tools he had at his disposal and slammed the West as neo-colonial and Satanist.
"Truth is on our side. Russia is with us!" Putin told his country's political elite, who had gathered in one of the Kremlin's grandest halls to watch what him sign documents annexing four Ukrainian regions.
He said the United States had set a precedent when it had dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945, but stopped short of issuing new nuclear warnings against Ukraine himself, something he has done more than once in recent weeks.
The ceremony culminated in the 69-year-old leader chanting "Russia Russia!" as he clasped the hands of the four Russian-backed officials he wants to run the annexed regions, which Ukraine is fighting to win back.
Putin said Russia and the four regions would defeat Ukraine together.
"People living in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region are becoming our compatriots forever," said Putin, referring to the four Ukrainian regions which he said Russia was annexing.
"We will defend our land with all our strength and all our means," he said, calling on "the Kyiv regime to immediately cease hostilities and return to the negotiation table".
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky, speaking in Kyiv, said he was ready for peace talks if and when Russia got a new president and announced that Ukraine was formally applying for fast-track membership of the Nato military alliance, something Moscow fiercely opposes.
Kyiv's move to join Nato was the pretext that Putin used for the offensive.
"We have already proven our compatibility with (NATO) alliance standards," Zelensky said in a video posted by the Ukrainian presidency on social media.
"We are taking a decisive step by signing Ukraine's application for accelerated accession to Nato," he added.
Zelensky and the West have condemned referendums that Moscow held in the four Ukrainian regions - and said showed big majorities to join Russia - as illegal shams, while several dozen Ukrainians interviewed by Reuters in the last week said that only people they described as "Russian collaborators" had voted, with most people boycotting them.
US President Joe Biden condemned Russia's "fraudulent" declaration, vowing to keep backing Kyiv army.
"We will continue to support Ukraine's efforts to regain control of its territory by strengthening its hand militarily and diplomatically," he said.
Washington announced "severe" new sanctions against Russian officials and the country's defence industry, and said G7 allies support imposing "costs" on any nation that backs the annexation.
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said recent actions by Russia constitute the most serious escalation of the conflict since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February.
"Putin has mobilised hundreds of thousands of more troops, engaged in irresponsible nuclear sabre-rattling and now illegally annexed more Ukrainian territory. Together, this represents the most serious escalation since the start of the war," Stoltenberg told a news conference.
However, he said the decision on Ukraine's Nato membership requires 'consensus' of allies.
Group of Seven foreign ministers said they would "never recognise" Russia's annexation of four more regions in Ukraine and pledged further sanctions against Moscow.
Despite warnings from Putin prior to the annexation that he could use nuclear weapons to defend the captured territories, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv would "continue liberating our land and our people".
In central Moscow, at least 10,000 people convened for state-organised annexation celebrations, with huge banners emblazoned: "Donetsk. Lugansk. Zaporizhzhia. Kherson. Russia!"
A concert in Red Square was replete with military and pomp and patriotic songs and throngs of Russians waving the national flag.
"I'm happy if they want to join Russia," Natalya Bodner, a 37-year-old lawyer told AFP. "They have more hope than we do".
"It should have been done a long time ago," a Russian serviceman Ildar Babaev from the southern region of Dagestan said.
"This is the right decision".
The four territories create a crucial land corridor between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
The Kremlin said it "needed to clarify" the exact borders of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia -- neither fully controlled by Moscow's forces -- that it intends to annex.
Together, all five regions including Crimea, make up around 20 percent of Ukraine, whose forces in recent weeks have been clawing back wins as part of a counter-offensive.
The UN Security Council was scheduled to vote later yesterday on a resolution condemning the referendums, according to France, the council's current president, but it has no chance of passing due to Moscow's veto power.
