President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday Ukraine was formally applying for fast-track membership of the NATO military alliance.
“We are taking our decisive step by signing Ukraine’s application for accelerated accession to NATO,” he said in a video on Telegram.
President Vladimir Putin proclaimed Russia’s annexation of a swath of Ukraine on Friday in a speech at the Kremlin but the event was overshadowed by one of Russia‘s worst battlefield defeats of the war, with one of its main garrisons surrounded.
“People living in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region are becoming our compatriots forever,” Putin told a crowd of officials in a ceremony in an ornate hall.
“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.”
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Putin’s proclamation of Russian rule over 15 per cent 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. UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres called it an illegal violation of the UN charter.
It comes as Russian forces have faced setbacks on the battlefield, with one of the worst so far looming even as Putin spoke. Pro-Russian officials acknowledged that Russian troops were on the verge of encirclement in Lyman, their main garrison in the north of Donetsk province.
Defeat there could open the way for Ukraine to recapture swathes of the territory that Putin has now declared to be part of Russia.
© 2022 Reuters
