Putin signs decree annexing 15 percent of Ukrainian territory

Baghdad-INA 

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to annex 15 percent of Ukraine's territory.

"The citizens of Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporozhye made their choice to join Russia, and this is their right, and the right to self-determination of peoples is inevitable, and our ancestors defended these lands," Putin said during the signing ceremony of accession agreements for 4 new regions to Russia at the Kremlin Palace.

He added: "Since Yekaterina the Great, our ancestors have preserved these regions and fought in the Second World War, and they were defended by the brave heroes of Russia, some of whom paid with their lives for that."

He continued, "The choice of millions of those regions is our common destiny and future, and these are feelings that no one will be able to take away from us, and I want the Kyiv regime and its operators in the West to hear that the residents of these regions have become citizens of Russia forever."

He stated: "We will recover all our lands and protect our peoples with all our means, and we will build those areas and provide a decent, stable and secure life throughout Russia."