Russia-Ukraine war live: EU ‘unequivocally rejects illegal annexation’ of Ukraine territories by Putin

My colleague Isobel Koshiw reports that Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not watch Putin’s speech.

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has told Russia that it will need to ask Kyiv for permission for Russian troops to exit the Lyman encirclement, provided “of course, those in Kremlin are concerned with their soldiers.”

Podolyak’s tweet also references the battle of Ilovaisk in 2014. In that event, Ukrainian soldiers who had negotiated safe passage out of an encirclement by pro-Russian forces were fired upon, resulting in, according to official figures, 366 Ukrainian soldiers and volunteer fighters being killed, 429 getting wounded, 128 taken prisoner, and 158 left missing in action.

EU executive calls for tighter visa restrictions on Russians

Jennifer Rankin

Jennifer Rankin reports for the Guardian from Brussels:

The EU executive has called for tighter restrictions on issuing short-stay visas to Russians in response to the Kremlin’s escalation of the war against Ukraine and partial mobilisation order.

Announcing new guidelines on Friday, Ylva Johansson, the EU commissioner for home affairs, told reporters that EU member states needed to carry out stricter checks when issuing short-stay visas for the bloc’s border-free travel zone.

“We should be very, very restrictive in issuing these kind of [Schengen] visas in the security situation we are in,” she said, citing Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats, the illegal annexation of four Ukrainian regions, the Russian president’s mobilisation order and what she called the “attacks” on Nordstream pipelines. “There is an escalation of the security threat. That is why we are presenting new guidelines,” she said.

In reality, it has already become harder for Russians to enter the EU since a ban on direct flights to and from Russia was introduced soon after the invasion. More recently, countries sharing a land border with Russia – Poland, Finland and the Baltic states – have stopped issuing Russian tourist visas and are denying entry to those seeking to travel for leisure.

The granting of visas for Russians has moved up the agenda, since Putin’s partial mobilisation order prompted large numbers of men and their families to flee Russia, although more appeared to have left for non-EU neighbouring states where access is easier.

Johansson insisted it remained possible for Russians to apply for asylum, but said they would not get special treatment. “This is not a time to give easier access than for other citizens that also might want to apply for asylum in the European Union.”

She also said Russians should not be allowed to apply for a Schengen visa from a third country, restricting onward travel options for those who fled to former Soviet states such as Georgia and Kazakhstan. Exceptions, however, are possible for journalists, dissidents, people with family ties in an EU country and those seeking a humanitarian visa.

In September, the EU had an additional 20,000 Russian arrivals compared with the previous year, 190,000 people rather than 170,000 in 2021. “The numbers of people that have entered is more than usual but it’s not that high,” Johansson said, adding that there had been very few applications or asylum from Russians.

Our correspondent Shaun Walker has suggested that Putin’s speech today was something of a greatest hits re-tread of the Russian president’s favourite themes.

He also suggested that Putin’s repeated complaints about the colonialism of the west struck an odd note when he himself was in the middle of annexing territory from a neighbouring sovereign state.

The grand ceremony in Moscow is at some contrast to events on the ground today, where Ukrainian forces appear to have nearly completely encircled Russian troops in a pocket around Lyman in Donetsk.

Reuters reports the move leaves Ukrainian forces with an open path to seize more territory in Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, captured earlier in some of the war’s bitterest fighting.

The Russian-installed leader in Donetsk has acknowledged troops had lost full control of the villages of Yampil and Dobryshev, north and east of the city of Lyman.

The Ukrainian army was “trying at all costs to spoil our historic events”, Denis Pushilin said. “This is very unpleasant news, but we must look soberly at the situation and draw conclusions from our mistakes.”

Ukraine’s military said it was withholding details of the situation on the battlefield until the area was stabilised, but that an operation was under way to encircle Russian forces.

“All the approaches and logistic routes of the enemy, through which they delivered ammunition and manpower, are in fact under fire control” of the Ukrainian army, said Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukrainian troops in the east.

Putin annexes four regions of Ukraine in major escalation of Russia’s war

Pjotr Sauer

Vladimir Putin has signed “accession treaties” formalising Russia’s illegal annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine, marking the largest forcible takeover of territory in Europe since the second world war.

The signing ceremony, held in defiance of international law, took place in the Grand Kremlin Palace in the presence of the country’s political elites, and comes on the heels of Kremlin-orchestrated fake referendums in the four Ukrainian regions – Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk.

Putin kicked off the ceremony with a lengthy, combative and angry speech in which the Russian leader issued new nuclear threats, promising to “protect” the newly annexed lands “with all the forces and means at our disposal”.

“The people have made their choice. An unequivocal choice … This is the will of millions of people,” Putin said, adding that the citizens of the four occupied regions will be part of Russia “for ever”.

Shortly after, Putin signed the “accession treaties” on a podium alongside the Russian-installed heads of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk.

Taken together, Russia is annexing at least 40,000 sq miles of eastern and southern Ukraine, about 15% of Ukraine’s total area, equal to the size of Portugal or Serbia.

“I urge the Kyiv regime to stop all hostilities, stop the war … and sit down for negotiations,” Putin said in his speech on Friday. Kyiv has indicated it will fight to reclaim all of its lands.

Read more of Pjotr Sauer’s report here: Putin annexes four regions of Ukraine in major escalation of Russia’s war

Orysia Lutsevych, who is head of the Ukraine forum at Chatham House, has said this about today’s annexation ceremony:

We should see Russia’s moves as a continued wave of annexation of neighbours’ territory. Russia’s level of control varies, from Abkhazia to Transnistria, to Crimea and Belarus. But this is all part of a pattern to enlarge Russia at the expense of others. Putin is on imperial mission to restore control over what he believes is ‘historic Russia’.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has immediately issued a rebuke to the Russian president, tweeting:

The illegal annexation proclaimed by Putin won’t change anything. All territories illegally occupied by Russian invaders are Ukrainian land and will always be part of this sovereign nation.

A statement issued by the members of the European Council reads:

We firmly reject and unequivocally condemn the illegal annexation by Russia of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. By wilfully undermining the rules-based international order and blatantly violating the fundamental rights of Ukraine to independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, core principles as enshrined in the UN charter and international law, Russia is putting global security at risk.

We do not and will never recognise the illegal ‘referenda’ that Russia has engineered as a pretext for this further violation of Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, nor their falsified and illegal results. We will never recognise this illegal annexation. These decisions are null and void and cannot produce any legal effect whatsoever. Crimea, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk are Ukraine. We call on all states and international organisations to unequivocally reject this illegal annexation.

We reiterate that the European Union firmly stands with Ukraine and will continue to provide strong economic, military, social and financial support to Ukraine for as long as it takes.

This was the scene outside the Kremlin in Moscow a little earlier today as people gathered for the annexation ceremony.

The attendees at the ceremony are standing to attention while the Russian national anthem is played. Putin is standing in a line with the leaders of the four regions of occupied Ukraine being absorbed into Russia. At the end of the anthem they have all joined hands in celebration.

Vladimir Putin is signing into law the annexations of four Ukrainian regions – Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk.

The Russian president is signing treaties annexing the territories in occupied Ukraine alongside the Russian-appointed leaders of the four regions.

Putin accuses the US of being responsible for creating the precedent by using nuclear weapons.

The Russian leader accuses the US and its allies of waging a “hybrid war” against Russia and the separatist administrations it backed in eastern Ukraine.

Putin says the west has no moral right to talk about democracy, adding that there are grounds to believe that western countries do not seek a way out of the global food crisis.

He goes on to say that the world is witnessing “sheer satanism” in the west and asks his audience if they really want their children to be “offered operations on sex changes”.

Putin says Russia is a great country with a great civilisation that refuses to live under the “false rules” dictated by the west.

He accuses the west of believing that “their civilisation and their neo-liberal culture is the golden standard to everyone else”, while “unilaterally deciding who has the right to self-determination and who doesn’t”.

Western countries were “very angry” at the choice of people in Crimea, he claims, referring to the 2014 so-called referendum that most of the world condemned as illegal.

“That’s why they believe that people do not have the right to have self-determination”.

Putin says:

The western elites have always been like this. They have been colonisers and they remain colonisers, they discriminate and they distinguish between the first class of nations and second-class nations.

That is why there is “Russophobia” that is being spread all over the west, he says.

Putin echoes previous claims that the west is seeking to weaken Russia and bring it to its knees ever since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The west is looking new opportunities to hit us and they always dreamt about breaking our state into smaller states who will be fighting against each other.

He accuses the west of being “greedy” and wanting Russia to be in its “colony”. The west is “prepared to do everything using this neo-colonial system to rob all other countries in the world”, he says.

Putin adds:

They don’t want to see us a free society. They want to see us as a crowd of slaves.

To loud applause inside the Kremlin hall, he declares:

They don’t need Russia. We need Russia!

Putin goes on to call on Ukraine to immediately cease all military actions and the war “that they began in 2014”.

Kyiv must come back to the negotiation table, Putin says.

We are open to this and we stated that many times.

But Ukrainian authorities must “respect the expression of the will of the people”, Putin says, referencing the fake referendums held in the Ukrainian territories over the past week.

We will protect our land using all our forces and we will do everything to ensure people’s securities.

Putin says the incorporation of the four Ukrainian regions into Russia is the “choice of millions of people” who share a common history with the Russian Federation.

The “destruction” of the Soviet Union “destroyed the connections between different parts” of the country, Putin continues.

Despite all the difficulties, they have carried through this love for Russia, and this feeling cannot be exterminated by anyone.

Putin says he is not aiming to return to the past and to rebuild the Soviet Union but claims there is “nothing stronger than the will of these people to come back to their historic roots”.

President Vladimir Putin has declared there are four new regions of Russia, as he announced the formal annexation of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.

He says the incorporation of these four regions “is the will of millions of people” and it is their “integral right” as stated in the UN charter.

Putin goes on to claim that the people of Donbas have been “victims of inhumane terrorist attacks conducted by the Kyiv regime”.

The Russian leader has long claimed that Ukraine is targeting Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine, and repeatedly made the unfounded accusation that Ukraine has carried out genocide in the east of the country.

He asks for a minute’s silence to be held to remember the soldiers and “heroes of the Great Russia” who have died during the “special operation” in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin is now speaking at the signing ceremony in the Kremlin to mark the formal annexation of four Ukrainian regions – Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk.

The Russian president begins by talking about the so-called “referendums” held over the last week in order for Moscow to claim a mandate for Putin’s territorial claims.

Putin claims the “results have come through and the results are known”. He says:

People have made their choice, and it’s definitive choice.

Ukraine and the west have denounced the fake referendums and said they will never recognise their legitimacy.