On Friday, Vladimir Putin will assert control over more territory as tensions with Kiev rise.

On Friday, in a significant escalation of the conflict with Kyiv, Vladimir Putin will invade four regions in south-eastern Ukraine, none of which Russia entirely controls.

Putin will sign "treaties" with Russian-appointed occupation officials and deliver a "major speech" at the ceremony in the Kremlin, according to Dmitry Peskov, the Russian president's spokesman, according to state newswire Ria Novosti.

 

The Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine that are under the control of Russian forces held heavily stage-managed elections last weekend, claiming that the population had overwhelmingly chosen to join Russia by percentages of up to 98%.

 

The so-called "fake referendums," which in some cases were conducted by armed "brigades" that delivered vote boxes to citizens' houses, have been rejected by Ukraine and its western partners.

 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, promised a "strong" military response from Kyiv to Russia's annexation on Thursday.

 

"Ukraine's territorial integrity will be recovered. In a phone conversation with Mario Draghi, the departing prime minister of Italy, Zelenskyy remarked, "And our response to Russia's acceptance of their outcomes would be quite harsh.

 

"Everyone in the world understands very well what such an effort at annexation would genuinely mean," Zelenskyy said in a video address later on Thursday. What the Kremlin hopes for it not signify.

 

Zelenskyy continued, alluding to Putin, "The price of the fact that one individual in Russia wants to continue this conflict will mean that the entire Russian society will be left without a regular economy, without a good existence, and without consideration for any human values."

 

In particular, he urged Siberian and Caucasian ethnic minorities who were revolting against being coerced into joining the Russian army to resist and protest against Putin.

 

On Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden of the United States described Russia's annexation attempts as "shameless and blatant." The United States. . . will never, ever, never acknowledge Russia's claim to Ukrainian territory, he declared.

 

"We will never allow any annexation of territory or any land-grabbing by Russia," said European Commission spokesperson Dana Spinant. "We are ready to make the Kremlin pay a severe price for this new escalation in the conflict."

 

Seven months into his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin's decision to annexe the territories—the largest forcible annexation of territory in Europe since the Second World War—is an effort to heighten the stakes.

 

A plot to overthrow Ukraine's government in a matter of days spectacularly failed as Russian troops sustained significant losses, and Ukraine has just mounted a counteroffensive in the north-east with the aid of advanced western weapons.

 

In a ferocious speech last week, Putin issued a challenge to the west, threatening to use all weapons at his disposal, including nuclear weapons, if Ukraine continued its offensive to reclaim what Putin now claims is part of Russia. Putin also called for the mobilization of the army's reserves to support the 1,000 km front line.

 

Thousands of people have left the country as a result of this decision's domestic backlash.

 

Putin stated on Thursday that "mistakes" had been made in summoning up those who did not have military experience or qualify for exemptions, showing that the Kremlin is concerned about the criticism.

 

The annexation also binds Putin to continue the war by claiming the substantial portions of the region that Ukraine controls.

 

Despite his ambiguous definition of Russia's invasion objectives, he claimed that "liberating" the Donbas, the region's industrial powerhouse made up of Donetsk and Luhansk, was at the very least a top priority.

 

As the Ukrainian counteroffensive goes on, Russian forces in Kherson are in danger of being cut off from their supply lines and at risk of being encircled by Ukrainian forces in Lyman, a city in the Donetsk region. In the Donetsk region, it is also having trouble capturing major cities like Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.

 

Despite Putin's warnings, the Western countries have sworn to keep supporting Ukraine's army militarily as it attempts to retake the areas now ruled by Russia.

 

But in secret, the US and its partners in Europe worry that Russia would use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and they have warned Moscow about the repercussions of doing so.

 

Former Putin stand-in and current vice-chair of the Russian security council, Dmitry Medvedev, wrote on Tuesday that the west would likely refrain from retaliating against Russia if it launched a nuclear attack against Ukraine.

 

A senior Nato official said on Thursday, "This puts us in a position where some intelligent decisions need to be taken, and I don't think only inside the alliance but also in Moscow." "It's probably time for people to consider their actions very seriously. where the journey leads, too.

 

According to Nato, all of the military alliance's 30 members "remain determined in giving Ukraine with political and practical support as it continues to defend itself against Russia's aggression."

 

It issued a statement saying that "Nato allies will not recognize [this] unlawful and illegitimate annexation." These areas belong to Ukraine. We demand that all nations reject Russia's overt attempts to annex territory.

 

The action was taken shortly after Nato promised a "united and decisive" response to attacks on vital military infrastructure, such the disruption of the Nord Stream gas pipelines from Russia to Germany. Despite the fact that no one has claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack, which resulted in the explosion of four gas pipelines beneath the Baltic Sea, it has nevertheless sparked a verbal spat between Moscow and western capitals as well as a significant rise in concerns regarding Europe's energy supplies.