Representational image. ANI
Brussels: European Union leaders on Friday vowed they would “never recognise” Russia’s illegal annexation of four more regions in Ukraine and accused the Kremlin of putting global security at risk.
“We firmly reject and unequivocally condemn the illegal annexation by Russia of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions,” the 27 leaders said in a statement, AFP reported.
Vladimir Putin signs accord to annex four Ukraine regions
Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday signed an accord to formally annex four Ukrainian regions to Russia.
He said that Russia was “not striving” to recreate the Soviet Union as he prepared to annex four Moscow-occupied Ukrainian regions at a Kremlin ceremony.
“The USSR is no more. We can’t bring the past back. And Russia doesn’t need it anymore. We are not striving towards that,” Putin said, after earlier claiming the last Soviet leaders had “destroyed our great country”.
The separatist Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine have been backed by Moscow since declaring independence in 2014, weeks after the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. The southern Kherson region and part of the neighboring Zaporizhzhia were captured by Russia soon after Putin sent troops into Ukraine on 24 February.
(With inputs from agencies)
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