PUTIN ANNEXES 4 UKRAINE AREAS

US secretary of state says Moscow not preparing to use atomic weapons

MOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin staged a grand ceremony in Moscow on Friday to celebrate the annexation of four parts of Ukraine occupied by his army, while Kyiv pushed for expedited North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership.

The event at the Kremlin—a turning point in post-Soviet history—came hours after shelling killed 30 people in Ukraine’s southern region of Zaporizhzhia in one of the worst attacks against civilians in months.

Putin was defiant during his address to Russia’s political elite, telling the West that the internationally condemned maneuver was irreversible and urging Ukraine to negotiate a surrender.

“I want to say this to the Kyiv regime and its masters in the West: People living in Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are becoming our citizens forever,” Putin said.

“We call on the Kyiv regime to immediately stop fighting and stop all hostilities ... and return to the negotiating table.”

The packed hall erupted into chants of “Russia! Russia” after the deal was inked.

Putin—rarely seen making physical contact since the pandemic—joined hands with his proxy leaders from the annexed regions and they shouted along in unison on state TV.

‘Sham routine’

Washington announced “severe” new sanctions against Russian officials and the country’s defense industry, and said G7 allies support imposing “costs” on any nation that backs the annexation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy immediately urged the US-led military alliance NATO to grant his country fast-track membership.

The Ukrainian leader doubled down in an address to the nation, vowing never to hold talks with Russia as long as Putin was in power.

“We will negotiate with the new president,” Zelenskyy said.

US President Joe Biden condemned Friday’s ceremony in Moscow as a “sham routine” that Putin put on to show strength but instead demonstrated that “he’s struggling,” and pledged to continue backing Kyiv.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg slammed the annexation as “illegal and illegitimate” but remained noncommittal after Ukraine said it was applying to join the Western alliance.

The United States and Canada voiced support for Ukraine’s membership but steered clear of promises to fast-track it.

Despite warnings from Putin prior to the annexation that he could use nuclear weapons to defend the captured territories, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv would “continue liberating our land and our people.”

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Friday that Washington would announce an “immediate” new weapons shipment for Kyiv next week.

Sullivan also said that while there is a “risk” of Putin using nuclear weapons, there is no indication that he would imminently do so.

Hours ahead of the annexation ceremony, an attack in Zaporizhzhia in the south killed at least 30 people and wounded dozens as civilians were preparing to leave to pick up relatives, Ukrainian officials said.

Bodies in civilian clothes were strewn across the ground after the attack and windows of cars blown out. Moscow celebrations In Moscow, at least 10,000 people convened for state-organized annexation celebrations, with huge banners emblazoned: “Donetsk. Lugansk. Zaporizhzhia. Kherson. Russia!”

“I’m happy if they want to join Russia,” Natalya Bodner, a 37-year-old lawyer told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “They have more hope than we do.”

Land corridor

The four territories create a crucial land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Together, the five regions make up around 20 percent of Ukraine, where forces in recent weeks have been clawing back territory.

Zelenskyy on Friday hailed the “significant results” from Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the east.

Ukrainian forces were on the doorstep of Lyman in Donetsk, which Moscow’s forces pummeled for weeks to capture this summer.

“Lyman is partially surrounded,” said Denis Pushilin, the pro-Moscow leader in Donetsk, adding later on social media that Russian forces were holding out “with the last of their strength.”

Russia on Friday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the annexation of the regions, while China, India, Brazil and Gabon abstained.

Although Russia’s veto was a certainty, Western powers had hoped to demonstrate Moscow’s growing isolation on the world stage and will now take the condemnation effort to the General Assembly, where every nation has a vote and none can kill a resolution.

At a Unesco meeting in Mexico City on Friday, representatives of dozens of countries walked out as Russia took the floor, symbolically condemning the invasion of Ukraine.

WASHINGTON—The United States has not yet seen Russia take any action that suggests it is contemplating the use of nuclear weapons amid its invasion of Ukraine, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Friday, despite what he called “loose talk” by Russian President Vladimir Putin about their possible use.

“We are looking very carefully to see if Russia is actually doing anything that suggests that they are contemplating the use of nuclear weapons. To date, we’ve not seen them take these actions,” Blinken told a news conference in Washington with his Canadian counterpart.

“This kind of loose talk about nuclear weapons is the height of irresponsibility and it’s something that we take very seriously,” Blinken said.

Putin on Friday proclaimed Russia’s annexation of a swathe of Ukraine, the biggest annexation in Europe since World War II. Putin also vowed to press ahead with what he calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine. Russia launched its invasion in February.

In recent weeks, Putin explicitly warned the West that Russia would use all available means to defend Russian territory and accused the West, without offering evidence, of discussing a potential nuclear attack on Russia.

Putin on Friday said the United States had set a precedent when it had dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945, but stopped short of issuing new nuclear warnings against Ukraine.

Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder this week said the United States had not seen any changes that would lead it to alter the posture of American nuclear forces.

World’s largest arsenal

Putin controls the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, including a new generation of hypersonic weapons and 10 times more tactical nuclear weapons than the West.

The Russian president announced the annexation of the four Ukrainian regions as Kyiv said on Saturday that its forces had encircled thousands of Russian troops around the eastern town of Lyman.

The capture of Lyman would be a major setback for Russia which has 5,000 to 5,500 troops in the town. Their numbers however may be lower because of casualties and troops trying unsuccessfully to break out, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern forces said.

“The Russian grouping in the area of Lyman is surrounded,” the spokesperson, Serhii Cherevatyi, said on television.

The Russian defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Russia has used Lyman as a logistics and transport hub for its operations in the north of the Donetsk region. Its fall would be Ukraine’s biggest battlefield gain since a lightning counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region last month.

The Ukrainian military spokesperson said the capture of Lyman would allow Kyiv to advance into the Luhansk region, whose full capture Moscow announced at the beginning of July after weeks of slow, grinding advances.

A step to liberation

“Lyman is important because it is the next step towards the liberation of the Ukrainian Donbas. It is an opportunity to go further to Kreminna and Sievierodonetsk, and it is psychologically very important,” he said.

The operation around Lyman is still under way and Russian troops are mounting unsuccessful attempts to break out of the encirclement, Cherevatyi said.

“Some are surrendering, they have a lot of killed and wounded, but the operation is not yet over,” he said.

Ukraine’s exiled governor of Luhansk said Russian forces had sought safe passage out of the encirclement, but Ukraine rejected the request.

The Ukrainian General Staff told Reuters it had no such information.

Putin proclaimed the Donbas regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to be Russian land in Friday’s ceremony.