TheCable

Russia’s Duma, the lower house of parliament, has unanimously approved the annexation of four regions in Ukraine.

In a plenary session on Monday, the Duma said Russia’s Federation Council, the upper house, is expected to formalise the annexation on Tuesday with final votes.

Putin had, on Friday, announced Russia’s annexation of a swathe of Ukraine, promising Moscow would triumph in its “special military operation”.

Russia had recently organised referendums in the four occupied regions in a bid to absorb them.

Armed troops were reported to have gone door-to-door with election officials to collect ballots during the five days of voting.

The exercise was held in Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south.

“They have made a choice to be with their people, their motherland, to live with its fate, and to triumph with it. Truth is on our side. Russia is with us,” Putin had said.

The formal annexation of the regions would mean future attempts by Ukraine to reclaim them will be described as an attack on Russia.

The development has since attracted a fresh round of sanctions from the United States, Britain and Canada, with the United Nations describing it as “a violation of international law that will never be accepted”.

In response, Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the country was formally applying for a fast-track membership in NATO.