Europe
Putin vows annexation of occupied Ukraine lands is 'forever'
Bloomberg News
September 30, 2022
From left: Moscow-appointed heads of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, and of the Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky; Russian President Vladimir Putin, center; Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin and Lugansk separatist leader Leonid Pasechnik celebrate at the Kremlin in Moscow on Friday, September 30, 2022, after signing treaties formally annexing four regions of Ukraine that Russian troops occupy. (MIKHAIL METZEL/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images/TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — Vladimir Putin vowed Russia's annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine is irreversible as he prepared to formalize Europe's biggest land grab since World War II, defying efforts by Kyiv, backed by the U.S. and its allies, to recapture its lost territory.