“We have taken a decisive step by signing Ukraine’s request for early accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO),” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

He noted that “Ukraine has been working to strengthen its relationship with NATO and we have begun procedures for joining the alliance similar to Sweden and Finland,” stressing that “Ukraine will not negotiate with Russia as long as Russian President Vladimir Putin is its the president”.

This came after the Ukrainian president met with his army commanders after Russia annexed 4 Ukrainian regions, namely Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, during the ceremony of signing agreements on the accession of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions to the Russian Federation, announced that “Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions have become Russian regions”, noting that “the accession of four new subjects of the Russian Federation expressed the people’s will of millions and pointed out that “the choice of millions of inhabitants of these regions is carried out after the catastrophe of the fragmentation of the Soviet Union.”

He emphasized that “the residents of Lugansk and Donetsk have become Russian citizens forever after being subjected to many years of blockade and hatred,” noting that “we will do everything to protect our lands, and the Kyiv regime must respect the will of the people. “