The signing ceremony in the Kremlin: separatist leaders present
Vladimir Putin is preparing to formalize the illegal annexation of the occupied areas of Ukraine: a challenge to the world that is feared will cause a new surge in violence in a war that has already killed tens of thousands of people.
In Moscow everything is ready. Today at 3 pm, in the sumptuous St. George’s Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace, the signing ceremony is scheduled. There will be separatist leaders and obviously Putin, who seems to be in a hurry to complete all the formalities in order to then be able to announce that the areas of Ukraine controlled by his soldiers “are part of Russia”: a declaration obviously contrary to the norms of international law and that almost no country in the world will subscribe.
“Any decision to proceed with the annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia would have no legal value and deserve to be condemned,” underlined the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres. But the Russian president seems determined to move forward, and quickly, after his military has lost ground in the Kharkiv region and fierce fighting is taking place in the Kherson area as well as in the Lyman area, which Ukrainian soldiers try to regain. After invading Ukraine by unleashing a bloody war, the Kremlin could thus, paradoxically, define the Ukrainian counter-offensives as “attacks on Russia”. And what is worrying in this context is above all Putin’s threat that he will also be able to use nuclear weapons to defend the “Russian territories”.
During the ceremony in the Kremlin, Putin will give a speech, which his spokesman has already announced “full-bodied”. Given the precedents, it is possible that the tone does not differ too much from the rhetorical one he used yesterday in a conference call. Speaking to the heads of the security services of the CIS countries (the Community of Independent States which arose from the ashes of the USSR), the Russian president lashed out at Western countries, stating that “they are ready to throw anyone, any country under the bus. And “to provoke a color revolution and start a massacre”. Then he accused the West of “working on scenarios to foment new conflicts in the space of the CSI”, but also stated that these conflicts are “the result of the collapse of the USSR”: words that bring to mind those spoken in the now far back in 2005, when he called the end of the USSR “the most serious geopolitical catastrophe of the twentieth century”.
To give the illegal annexation a semblance of legitimacy, farce “referendums” were held in the occupied areas that did not even come close to the most basic democratic standards, and witnesses report that separatist “officials” were moving from house to house. another with urns escorted by armed soldiers. The secessionists claim to have opted for this practice for security reasons, but the intimidating flavor of a vote carried out in this way is evident.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the vote “worthless”. Then he declared that «the territorial integrity of Ukraine will be restored» and that «the reaction» of Kiev «to the recognition of the results by Russia will be very harsh». Meanwhile, the US and the EU are preparing other possible sanctions against Moscow, and Washington has announced the sending of new weapons to Ukraine worth 1.1 billion dollars.
Meanwhile, a concert is being prepared in Red Square for tonight to celebrate the illegal annexation. “Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson are Russia!” Reads the stage under construction. A situation that contrasts with the exodus triggered by the mobilization ordered by Putin, with thousands and thousands of Russians who have left the country for fear of being called to arms. Many borders remain open, but going west becomes more difficult now that Finland, like the Baltics and Poland, has closed the borders to Russians who have a Schengen tourist visa.
The climate is becoming increasingly tense, and if on Wednesday the USA, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria invited their compatriots who are in Russia to “leave the country” as soon as possible, yesterday Italy recommended its citizens in Russia to “Assess whether the stay is necessary and, if not, to leave”
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