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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sept. 30 announced that Moscow would annex four Ukrainian provinces following staged "referendums." (Video: Reuters)

Russia-Ukraine war U.S. imposes new sanctions over Russia’s illegal annexation

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Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees Friday to annex four regions of Ukraine. In a grand ceremony in the Kremlin, he said Russia would formally incorporate Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions — and that the people living there would “be our citizens forever.”  
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country was applying for “accelerated ascension” into NATO, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday. But the remarks were more symbolic than practical: The speedy admittance of Ukraine would require NATO members to immediately send troops to fight Russia under the alliance’s collective defense obligations.
“The United States is never going to recognize” the results of the staged referendums, President Biden said in remarks on Friday. “And quite frankly, the world is not going to recognize it either.”
A United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s “illegal, so-called referenda” in Ukraine, and calling on “all states” not to recognize Moscow’s annexation, failed to pass at the Security Council Friday following Russia’s veto.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country was applying for “accelerated ascension” into NATO, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday. But the remarks were more symbolic than practical: The speedy admittance of Ukraine would require NATO members to immediately send troops to fight Russia under the alliance’s collective defense obligations.
“The United States is never going to recognize” the results of the staged referendums, President Biden said in remarks on Friday. “And quite frankly, the world is not going to recognize it either.”
A United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s “illegal, so-called referenda” in Ukraine, and calling on “all states” not to recognize Moscow’s annexation, failed to pass at the Security Council Friday following Russia’s veto.
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