While Russia is pursuing the annexation of parts of Ukraine, Britain has condemned it as a breach of international law and has said it will never admit it.
“It is unacceptable for President Vladimir Putin to use violence to fix borders,” Truss said in a statement on Monday, according to AFP and Reuters.
Prime Minister Truss criticized Putin for showing a blatant disregard for the lives of the Ukrainian people he claims to represent.
“The UK will never abandon its will to sovereignty, and will never recognize Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporiza as anything outside the territory of Ukraine,” he said.
Earlier, on the 29th, Putin signed a decree recognizing Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporiza provinces as independent states.
This is a preliminary procedure before the signing ceremony for the annexation agreement with the four Ukrainian states which is to be held in the Kremlin on the same day.
Donetsk and Luhansk, controlled by pro-Russian separatist rebels, had already been recognized by Russia as independent states in February this year.
Russia held a referendum in these four regions for five days starting on the 23rd, and the electoral commissions of those four regions announced that the merger with Russia had been approved with an overwhelming majority of 87-99%.
However, the West and Ukraine have defined the vote as a ‘fake vote’ in violation of international law and have predicted a strong response, because the Russian military has put pressure on the citizens to vote in a compulsory manner.
/happy news
