Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin stated early on Saturday (Sep 30) that residents of Moscow-held areas in Ukraine expressed their need to be a part of Russia in current native elections, reaffirming referendums final yr that Western international locations denounced as unlawful.
In a video handle launched on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s controversial announcement it was annexing 4 components of Ukraine, Putin stated the selection to affix Russia was strengthened by this month’s native elections that returned officers supporting Russia’s annexation.
“Simply as a yr in the past within the historic referendums, folks once more expressed and confirmed their will to be with Russia and supported their countrymen who, via their labour and actual actions, proved worthy of the folks’s belief,” he stated in a video of simply over 4 minutes issued at midnight.
Putin reiterated his stance that Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine saved folks from nationalist leaders in Kyiv who had unleashed a “full-scale civil battle” and “terror towards those that assume otherwise”.