Putin announces 'there four unique regions of Russia' as Moscow adds parts of Ukraine

October 03, 2022: -On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated four unique regions of the country shortly after inscribing a decree that formally added parts of occupied Ukraine.

“There are four unique regions of Russia,” Putin said from the Kremlin in Moscow, according to a translation.

“The results are understood, well known,” Putin said, referring to the series of annexations that the West described as a sham. He claimed the results were due to the will of millions of people, saying they had the right to self-determination.

These include two self-proclaimed pro-Russian “republics” in Luhansk and Donetsk in the east and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.

Unsurprisingly, the votes, caught as illegitimate, illegal, and rigged by Ukraine and its allies, saw most people vote to join Russia.

Ukraine said the referendums were “under the barrel of a gun” and called on its international allies to immediately ramp up severe sanctions on Russia to deter it from adding more territory as it did with Crimea in 2014.

Kyiv said it would not stop resisting until it had reclaimed every last inch of land lost to Russia and said it would not negotiate with the Kremlin following the so-called votes.

Moscow, for its part, has warned it has “the right” to use nuclear weapons to defend its territory and residents if it feels there is an existential threat or even if traditional weapons attack it.

This has raised concerns that it could resort to using nuclear weapons against Ukraine now that more regions are added, and Moscow can claim them, therefore falsely, as their own. One Ukrainian security ministry official said that Kyiv understands the threat of such an attack is “real.”