Russia concluded parliamentary procedures for the incorporation of four partially occupied territories in the east and south of Ukraine, after which Kiev closed the door to any peace dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin by decree and considered the annexation null and void.
The incorporation treaties of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions received the approval of the Russian Senatewhere they got the support of all the members of the Upper House of Parliament.
“The laws we passed on Tuesday will be immediately passed on to the President of Russia,” said Senate President Valentina Matviyenko.
The annexation treaties were on Monday ratified unanimously from the Duma or Lower House.
Now the documents depend solely on their promulgation by Putin to take effect, which he predictably will do this Tuesday, according to his spokesman, Dmitri Peskov.
no solemn ceremony
Unlike in 2014, when the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula to Crimea was decreed with a solemn ceremony in the Kremlin, this time the Russian leader it does not intend to preside over such an actaccording to the Russian Presidency.
“The president has already made a speech (last Friday), we have all seen and heard, it was very important,” Peskov said today.
The entry of Crimea into Russia eight years ago, preceded by a popular referendum in which a 97% of the voters supported this optionwas sealed after explicit legal and parliamentary procedures on March 21, 2014, during a ceremony held in the Catherine Hall in the Kremlin.
The location of the ceremony was chosen on purpose, as Catherine the Great was the monarch who wrested control of Crimea from the Ottoman Empire in 1783.
A change in the Constitution to incorporate 89 federated entities
The incorporation of the Ukrainian territories will force to reform article 65 of the Constitution which includes 85 federal entities. Now they rise to 89 with the inclusion of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia.
Furthermore, after the annexation, the Russian Federation, which has more than 147 million inhabitants, will exceed 150 million citizens.
According to the Moscow-imposed authorities of the incorporated regions, some of them have already formed “queuing” to receive Russian citizenship.
With the annexation of these territories, Russia also transforms Azov into an inland sea, which guarantees the security of Crimea.
The ratified annexation treaties state that the the official language in the new regions of this country will be Russianalthough the use of Ukrainian will be allowed and the national currency will be the ruble.
At the same time, the transition period for the full incorporation of the territories in Russia extends to January 2026.
According to a poll released Tuesday by the Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTSIOM), near the Kremlin, 75% of Russians support “the entry into Russia of the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as the liberated territories of Zaporizhia and Kherson” .
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, had already done so he ruled out any dialogue with Putin on Friday after the annexation of the Ukrainian territories and this Tuesday promulgated the respective decree.
In addition, he signed a decree that considers the laws on the Russian annexation of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, as well as the Crimean peninsula, to be null and void.
An annexation in the midst of the Ukrainian counter-offensive
The methods of ratification of the annexation treaties coincide with art loss of territories in Donbas and southern Ukraine from the Russian army.
Before Tuesday’s voting, Senator Liudmila Nárusova drew attention to the “unprecedented” fact of the annexation of territories that still under partial Ukrainian controlto which the president of the Constitutional Legislation Commission, Andréi Klishas, replied that the Constitutional Court had given the green light to the treaties.
The pro-Russian leader of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, admitted on Monday a “breakthrough” of the Ukrainian troops and its arrival in the city of Dudchany, about 110 kilometers from the regional capital.
At the same time, he claimed that the Russian plane managed to stop the Ukrainian attack and “destroyed two battalions” of the enemy.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski reported Monday that “the advance of the Ukrainian army continues” and that “several cities in different regions have been liberated”.
Zelensky added that there is “bloody fight” in various points of the face.
Shortly after his words, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported that it had taken control of the city of Davydiv Brid, on the Kherson border with the neighboring Mykolaiv region.
Source: EFE
Source: Clarin
