VLADIMIR PUTIN yesterday carried out his territorial coup in Ukraine -
the largest imperialist aggression in Europe since the Second World War
- in defiance not only of the legality of the United Nations, but also of the criteria of its Chinese ally, which continues to defend Ukrainian integrity and In recent weeks he has further cooled his stance on the Kremlin's war adventure.
The Russian president sealed his expansionist ambitions by absorbing four occupied regions into Russian 'living space'
-Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia- with
the signing of the decrees for the forced annexation of approximately 15% of the Ukrainian territory
.
The attack follows the same script as the blow to Crimea in 2014: a series of false referendums without guarantees and with ridiculous approval percentages followed by a solemn proclamation of adherence to the motherland and treaties with the legitimacy of a dead letter.
The difference now lies in the position of the Russian leader himself -
who is going through the weakest moment of his two decades in power
- and of a much more assertive West when it comes to responding to the threat of the Kremlin occupant, cornered by the counteroffensive of kyiv troops on the ground and with the wind of public opinion against it.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Putin that yesterday's decision marks "a dangerous escalation of the conflict" and that "any annexation of territory as a result of a threat or use of force violates the principles of law. international".
The Russian president's flight forward seems like a crude attempt to sell some kind of victory for internal consumption by a population hostile to the partial mobilization of civilians that he has decreed to stop the bleeding of Moscow's troops at the front.
An attempt to unite the Russians by waving the nationalist banner of the savior of their identity
in the face of "attempts to annihilate it" by the government of Volodimir Zelensky, which has already announced that it will not tolerate territorial reductions as a sacrifice to achieve peace.
The Russian leader staged the conquest with a sumptuous ceremony in the Kremlin that came just hours after the bloodbath with which his soldiers watered the streets of Zaporizhia -precisely one of the regions adopted yesterday by Moscow-,
carpeting them with dozens of corpses after the attack on a convoy of civilians
which left two dozen dead.
The initiative to integrate the four Ukrainian regions "forever" - as Putin warned in an angry speech in which he rejected Western attempts to turn Russia into a "colony" -
is another step in the strategy of
escalate to de-escalate
before the defeat suffered on the ground
.
That is, to shield that territory by Russifying it and threatening to respond with "all force in the event of an attack" (which includes nuclear weapons), with the aim of breaking the firmness and unity of Europe when it comes to continuing to support kyiv with weapons and funds.
The West must not accept blackmail that repeats the Crimea scenario and must reinforce both military aid to Ukraine and sanctions to punish the Kremlin's new aggression.
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