Putin: Ready to negotiate with the West

Of: 

Oskar Forsberg 

Joachim Kerpner 

Published: Less than 3 hours ago 

Updated: Less than 1 hour ago 

NEWS 

In a speech today, Vladimir Putin declared four Ukrainian territories Russian. 

This after conducting mock polls. 

The Russian president also said he is ready to "negotiate with the West". 

Russian President Vladimir Putin is currently giving a speech in the Kremlin about the four regions in Ukraine where fake elections were held. 

It is about Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya. 

He now formally declares the regions as Russian and says that the inhabitants of the regions have "made their choice". 

- It is a clear choice. Today we are signing the agreements to include these areas in the Russian Federation. This is the will of millions of people, says the Russian president. 

Ready to negotiate 

Russia has forced referendums in the regions where residents have been asked if they want to belong to Russia. 

The outside world has not recognized the votes, as they were forced. 

Vladimir Putin also said in his speech that he is now ready for negotiations with the West. 

- We call on the Kyiv regime to immediately stop fighting. Ending the war unleashed by the Kyiv regime in 2014 and returning to the negotiating table.We are ready for it. But we will not discuss the people's elections in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson. They have made their decisions. Russia will not betray them, Putin said. 

The annexation of the four territories is against international law and a number of Western powers have announced that they will not under any circumstances recognize the territories as Russian. 

The Swedish Foreign Ministry tweeted 

The procedure was kicked off with a formal step late Thursday night, when Vladimir Putin signed a decree in which Russia recognizes the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as independent territories. In February, similar decisions were made for the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. 

This is reported by TT. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi is said to have called a crisis meeting with the country's National Security and Defense Council on Friday. 

Sweden's foreign minister Ann Linde tweeted during the afternoon about the annexation. 

"Sweden will never recognize Russia's illegal annexation, regardless of whether it is Crimea or Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya," she writes. 

The State Department also tweeted. "Crimea is Ukraine. Donetsk is Ukraine. Kherson is Ukraine. Luhansk is Ukraine. Zaporizhzhya is Ukraine”