In one of the boldest moves yet by Vladmir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, he formally admitted the four occupied regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia into the Russian Federation at a signing ceremony held at the Kremlin, Moscow. The lose of the four regions will shrink Ukraine’s landmass by about 20%.

This is an escalation of the war that started on 24th February this year when Russian forces invaded Ukrainian territory in what Putin called ” a special military operation” that has since roped in the US and its allies as they try to prop Zelensky’s government in Kiev.

The signing ceremony came three days after the completion of Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums” in the four regions, which are largely or partly occupied by Russian or Russian-backed forces. Following the referendums,  Putin called it the will of the people and that they have chosen to break away from Ukraine on their own volition and that Russia will defend its lands with all their strength and by all means.

In one of the most anti-western speech in his 20 years as the Russian head of state, the strongman teared into the West’s hypocrisy by calling out their atrocities in Africa and Asia during the colonial period. He also claimed that its what made them prosper. Putin further signaled he was ready to continue what he called a battle for a “greater historical Russia”

The Russian head of state further invited the Ukrainian government in Kiev for dialogue over the end of the war, but on matters the four regions, that was done and dusted and that they will remain Russian citizens forever.

The  western nations  led by US and Britain have denounced the developments warning Russia of dire consequences even as they urged the rest of the world to take with a pinch of salt Putin’s pronouncements.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg accused Putin of provoking “the most serious escalation” of the war since it began on February 24, but said he would not succeed in deterring the alliance from supporting Kyiv.