By formally annexing these four provinces just as his army is struggling to hold on to them, Vladimir Putin has linked his own fate to theirs, backing himself into a corner from which he will find it all but impossible to extricate himself
in real time”, “hearts beating in the ringing silence”, “Russia’s historic lands coming home”. Thus did Russia’s state television advertise Vladimir Putin’s grandiose speech in the Kremlin on September 30th, at the end of which he signed documents annexing four Ukrainian provinces, only one of which Russia occupies close to fully. In the West, it was instantly denounced as an illegal act that no one will recognise.
By putting on a big performance and couching it in warped historic terms, Mr Putin tried to set the seal of permanence on the largest land grab in Europe since the second world war. “I want the Kyiv authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me, so that they remember this. People living in Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia are becoming our citizens. For ever.”
The move, which is to be rubber-stamped by Russia’s parliament early next week, has turned Russia’s hitherto internationally recognised borders into contested lines, and made “Russian” territory a live battleground. Paradoxically it has also made Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 more tenuous, by making its status as preposterous as the latest land-grab.
His main goal, however, was to persuade his people that he is winning. By enlarging Russia Mr Putin is hoping to revitalise and broaden his support base at a time when his approval ratings are falling, especially since he ordered the mobilisation of hundreds of thousands more Russian men on September 21th. Until a week ago, a large part of Mr Putin’s electorate supported the war because it did not require any involvement or sacrifice on their part.
No sooner had Mr Putin stopped talking and put his signature to the four agreements alongside those of the four Russian-installed puppets of the partially-occupied provinces, than Mr Zelensky came out of his own government building to sign his own document on a makeshift table. “I am signing an application for Ukraine’s accelerated accession into NATO,” he declared. Although this will not happen, Ukraine now enjoys a de facto partnership with NATO that is unbreakable.
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