With the signing of four annexation treaties on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin escalated his seven-month conflict and entered it into an unpredictably new chapter.In front of a crowd of dignitaries in the Kremlin’s St. George’s Hall, Putin declared, “This is the will of millions of people.” “People in the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia are permanently becoming our compatriots.”
Putin delivered a 37-minute tirade against the West, accusing it of “sheer Satanism,” before signing the treaty paperwork with the Russian-backed leaders of the four organisations in a ceremony that Kyiv dubbed a “Kremlin freak show” devoid of any legal significance.
