Putin announces Russia will annex four Ukrainian territories after sham referendums

Vladimir Putin on Friday declared that four provinces of Ukraine will become Russian territory based on referendums that took place this week, a move that is expected to unleash a wave of sanctions and widespread condemnation from other nations.

The declaration marked the latest escalation in Russia's seventh-month war in Ukraine, where its armed forces have suffered surprisingly heavy losses that have eroded Putin’s standing at home.

"I'm sure the federal assembly will support the laws of formation of the four new regions in Russia, four new subjects of the Russian federation," Putin said in a speech Friday at the Kremlin. "Because this is the will of millions of people."

During a ceremony at the Kremlin, Putin said the four provinces — Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — will be folded into Russia. They will join the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed after its more limited initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

The annexations represent a violation of international law and the vast majority of nations won’t recognize the territory as Russian.