President Putin has announced the illegal seizure of four areas of Ukraine – saying they are now Russian territory
In an angry speech decrying the West, he claimed people living in the regions had made their choice – but “referendums” held there have been labelled shams
The territory being seized is in Russian-held Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions
The formal process to incorporate them into the Russian Federation will happen over the next few days
It echoes Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, which also followed a discredited referendum
Earlier, many civilians were reported killed and wounded in a Russian strike on a civilian convoy in Zaporizhzhia
A huge crater next to a row of vehicles in the city testified to the violence of the attack
More details……