Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a law formalizing the absorption of four Ukrainian territories into the Russian Federation after the annexation was approved by both houses of Russia’s parliament.
The move means that the Russian-controlled areas in the Ukrainian oblasts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and the breakaway Donbas republics of Donetsk and Luhansk (DPR & LPR) are now part of Russia in the eyes of Moscow.
The document signed by Putin said that Russia’s new borders in the regions will be determined by what borders “existed on the day of their formation and admission into the Russian Federation.”
Putin’s signing of the documents comes as Ukraine continues to make gains in its southern Kherson offensive. Over the past few days, Russian forces have retreated from areas in Kherson and also in eastern regions as Ukraine continues to mount counteroffensives.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked if there was a contradiction between Putin signing the documents and the reality on the ground in Ukraine and said that Russia would recapture the territory.
“There is no contradiction here. They will be with Russia forever, they will be retaken,” he said.
Russia is sending reinforcements into Ukraine after Putin ordered the mobilization of 300,000 troops but still hasn’t formally changed the label of its war in Ukraine from a “special military operation” to a full-scale war or counterterrorism operation.
When asked about a potential change in Russia’s military operation, Peskov said, “So far, no such decisions have been made. Only the continuation of the special military operation is on the agenda.”
The annexation means that Russia now considers Ukraine’s counteroffensives as attacks on Russian territory. Putin has reminded the West that Russia would use all of the weapons at its disposal to defend its “territorial integrity,” including nuclear weapons. Despite the risk of escalation, the US has shown no sign of backing down on its support for Ukraine.
Still pushing that “including nuclear weapons” BS, I see. It’s amazing how Antiwar.com can’t separate itself from MSM-level reporting.
“This is not a bluff. And those who try to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the weathervane can turn and point towards them,” Putin said.
Putin did say that about defending their “territorial integrity”. So, if he says the annexed territories will be defended like they are part of Russia, I don’t think antiwar.com was wrong.
It’s a matter of degree. If the US or Ukraine used nukes in Ukraine, then Russia would use nukes. But that’s not going to happen. Putin made those comments to warn off the West, not to suggest that there is any other possibility that Russia would use nukes in Ukraine. Russia has zero need to use nukes in Ukraine, so it is disingenuous to suggest that they will. If the subject of nukes is brought up, then the full context should be stated, not just “Russia got new territory, Russia will use nukes to defend it.” It’s fundamentally dishonest.
I agree with this commentator.
Putin said what he said. If you want to interpret it to fit your point of view, you’re free to do so.
If you read what he said including the preceding and following sentences, it is clear what he meant. Especially when you recognize the simple fact that Russia has zero need for nukes in Ukraine. Why threaten something that he knows will never be needed (short of the US using or supplying nukes in Ukraine, as I’ve said.)?
I went by what he said and it was quite clear.
Well, you are the only one who thinks so among those who have analyzed it, including Mercouris, MoA, Ritter, Berletic and many others. You can stick with that since it isn’t costing you anything. Which makes this entire exchange pointless.
Putin said he’d defend Russia’s territorial integrity and he’d use nukes if Russia’s existence was in the balance. Now, if he wasn’t including an overwhelming US/NATO attack using conventional weapons, then I guess the US/NATO should pay heed and bombs away. And since those annexed territories are now part of Russia according to Putin, why wouldn’t he do the same regarding them?
While Russian will regain lost grounds, I feel like they are in the same spot as they were during 1941. Caught with their pants down.
How do you know they will regain lost ground?
That reads like it’s your wish.
Russia won’t regain anything. Their pants aren’t coming back up.
Better use the standard “that land had no strategic value” line or the “they are repositioning.”
We have a saying in the old country: Nostloy bleckla, den noi pushta.
Larry Johnson explains the real situation with the Ukraine “advances”. He references Brian Berletic’s latest video Wednesday which I also recommend for a dose of reality. Russia by no means “caught with their pants down.” Berletic, by the way, is right when he says even pro-Russian bloggers have fallen for a load of BS. Even Alexander Mercouris today falls for it, which motivated me to send an email pointing out where he is wrong.
More Military and Economic Considerations in Ukraine
https://sonar21.com/more-military-and-economic-considerations-in-ukraine/
The Limits of Ukraine’s Offensive and the High Price to Pay When it Ends
May be this young man is right, but Ukrainian offensive was really successful. Difficult to deny this fact. Some people pointed at the criminal negligence of Russian defense by certain generals in Kharkov region. Even Kadyrov blamed one 3 stars general of not providing the troops with the necessary things. He suggested, this particular 3 stars general should be deprived of all the decorations and sent to the front line as the private. By the way, yesterday, Kadyrov himself was promoted to the rank of 3 stars general.
Kadyrov is not an expert in military operational art, AFAIK, despite his rank. There’s no indication he attended a Russian military academy. People who knew the officer he referred to responded to his comment that he was entirely off-base about the officer. The Ukrainian offensive has merely succeeded in capturing empty towns and uninhabited steppes, while suffering massive losses, and failing to inflict serious losses on the allies. This is not being “really successful.” Brian Berletic pointed this out in his video Wednesday, establishing that this so-called “offensive” – which isn’t really an “offensive” , which implies a front-wide attack, but merely a series of tactical attacks in various places – is not sustainable.
I am not a sympathizer of Kiev neo-Nazi regime, but it is silly to deny the facts. What concerns Kadyrov’s military skills, he is really one of the best generals. Thanks to Kadyrov, Chechen troops are very well trained and very well equipped. His military experience is great. He personally organized many military operations against Wahhabi gangs in Chechnya. Thats why he was decorated with the highest military decoration of Russia and that’s why he was promoted to the rank of general a long time ago. By the way, Ukrainians captured also some territory in Kherson region as well. Kharkov oblast now almost completely under Ukrainian control. A lot of civilians who had no chance to evacuate, got under repressions of neo-Nazis. How many of them are killed, no one counted yet. It is a big defeat of Russia.
Are you talking about the Tik Tok Chechens that shoot at traffic lights and empty buildings in staged firefights to impress the Kremlin?
Also, About the Neo Nazis; I posted this on another topic. Just want to put things in perspective:
https://youtu.be/XQc6mJ7u8gQ
Their existence is not a secret. And Neo is a qualifier, as I’m sure you know.
I repeat, Kadyrov is not an expert in military operational planning. He may be a great fighter and leader, but it is the Russian General Staff who planned and conducted this war. You need to understand that capturing some empty town and empty steppes, while losing thousands of men, is not a “success”. The Russians are ceding ground because the ground isn’t worth sacrificing their troops over. The Ukrainians are doing the opposite and that is not sustainable success. The Ukrainians are wasting manpower and equipment to score gains for PR purposes, to keep the Western money flowing. Given the military balance between Ukraine and Russia, it is impossible for Ukraine to defeat Russia. Minor tactical gains are irrelevant. But one has to understand war to understand that. 98% of the people complaining about the Russian conduct of the war do not understand that. It would be better for those people to shut the fuck up, have patience, and wait for the inevitable result – a Russian victory.
“I repeat, Kadyrov is not an expert in military operational planning.”
And you are?
You are carefully repeating the version of those who are responsible for this defeat. Everyone knows this version. However, it is absolutely unsustainable. No one of military experts and retired generals, who bothered to talk about that publicly, said it was well done. Some are talking about the treason.
Few people doubt that Russia will win this war. It doesn’t contradict the fact that it could be done much better.
This was not in any sense a defeat – except for people who don’t understand the conduct of war. Go over to Martyanov’s site and see how far you get with this “defeat” nonsense.
And that is why the Russian army is so F..d up. They promote anybody who is loyal, to the rank of General and ignore qualifications. Battlefields don’t lie.
My job description was “To close with and kill the enemy”.
There are several ways in which you can get close enough to kill the enemy and in the end that’s what wins wars, you destroy the enemy.
Often you need to “patrol to contact”. Meaning you patrol in areas where the enemy will strike you first, so you can strike back. Getting the enemy to come out into the open, where they can be destroyed, is the art of the infantry. The Russian’s did that all around Kiev. They made Ukrainian forces come out and fight, where they could be easily destroyed. The Russians took losses but how many losses compared with trying to storm areas where the Ukrainians had already dug in? Far from being a defeat for Russia, they destroyed Ukrainian equipment and men at a ten to one ratio, just like they are doing now and like they were doing during their own offensives in Donbass and other areas in the South.
Now they don’t have to take the fight to the Ukrainians to destroy them, because the Ukrainians are coming to the Russians begging to be cut off and destroyed, where and when the Russians choose.
For the most part the Russians have waged this war in a way that maximizes damage to the Ukrainian forces and minimizes their own. The exceptions seem to be few and far between.
To close with and kill the enemy. That’s what it’s all about.
Dude, GTFOH with this BS.
First of all, Russia could easy destroy Ukrainian railroad communication and the bridges. The electricity also should be switched off. It never was done. That’s why NATO military equipment is arriving to the front so easy.
This annexation, if kept, has at least the following effects. It will strengthen Russia’s control of the Black Sea. It will deal Russia in on the Ukrainian leg of international food trade. It will remove Ukraine’s major coal and oil fields and its major industrial production base.
To make the “if kept” a reality, Putin will have to remove the ardent pro-Ukrainian supporters from these Oblasts. That can only be done by violating fundamental human rights.
If Ukraine recovers these Oblasts it will have to deal with two problems. Russia will remain a powerful neighbor and the West will not necessarily always come to help
a. And Ukraine will have to deal more realistically than before with the sizeable Russian minorities in that region.
The Crimea? For recovery Ukraine will have only two choices. Attack through Perekop or carry out a naval landing. For either it will need NATO armed forces for assistance.
“And Ukraine will have to deal more realistically than before with the sizeable Russian minorities in that region”
There’s probably not any way this war ends without a large permanent refugee resettlement. Whether that’s people who don’t want to live “in Russia” moving out of the Donetsk/Luhansk region and into Ukraine proper, or people who don’t want to live “in Ukraine” moving out of Kherson/Zaporizhzhia to Russia or the LPR/DPR, or some of both. And not just for political reasons. If I’m a skilled industrial worker from that larger general area, Russian LPR/DPR is just probably going to be a better economic move for me than Ukraine, and so on.
Of course, some of both groups have already fled their homes and may not return, but there are probably more who will, either way, dislike the outcomes and decide to pick up and move.
There will be resettlement. But it is unlikely that Russia will ever be able to pacify Donetsk or Luhansk. Assuming the Russians ever defeat the Ukrainian army (I am still amazed that they have not) the resistance will go underground and prevent the Russians from withdrawing without abandoning the the occupied territories. The unjustified Russian invasion turned centuries of Ukrainian resentment of Russian imperialism into a fervent hatred which is motivating the Ukrainian resistance. That resistance has driven Darth Vlad to escalation and desperation. He declared four oblasts annexed including territory that Russians and separatists never occupied. And Darth Vlad’s army is being pushed out of territory that he claims to have been annexed by Mother Russia. Consider Lyman. Can anyone explain the strategic advantage of abandoning a critical transportation hub only after it the Ukrainians were closing the circle around it. You can’t call that a strategic withdrawal. Lyman was the linchpin connecting all the Russian positions in the Donbas. And the Russians are losing ground in Kherson.
Darth Vlad’s political honeymoon is over Hundreds of thousands of Russians already fled the country or demonstrated against the war. Who wants to be in an army that threatens soldiers with ten years in prison if they surrender in the fiekld? This is Darth Vlad’s war.It is not Russias war. It he doesn’t end it, the Russian people will end his regime.
The Ukrainians have won.
“Putin will have to remove the ardent pro-Ukrainian supporters from these oblasts” – why? There are a lot of pro-Ukrainian supporters in every Russian town. It is not a problem. The majority does matter. That’s how the democracy works.
Correction. Not “annexation” but accessio.
Correction. Not “annexation” but “occupation.”
Correction self detirmination
By the way for occupation you need manpower, Russia does not have that in eastern Ukraine. The eastern Ukrainians have been resisting and fighting the Neo Nazi Kiev regime since 2014.with great loss of life. Of course they want protection from Russia. Russiacshould have intervened 8 years ago. Know your history, Sir.
The US has shown no evidence of pursuing a coherent policy.
Fixed it for you.