Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin annexes Ukrainian regions; Kyiv applies for Nato membership

Addressing the crowds in the Red Square, Putin vows to “do everything” to “raise the level of security” in the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk – regions in Ukraine the Russian president formally annexed earlier this afternoon.

Putin says:

Dear friends, we will do everything in order to support our brothers and sisters in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and in Donetsk and Luhansk.

We will do everything in order to raise the level of security in these territories for these people.

We will do everything to restore the economy and restore infrastructure, build schools, new institutions, hospitals.

He ends his speech by saying:

We have become stronger because we are together. We have the truth. And the truth means power. At means victory. Victory will be ours.

Vladimir Putin is now addressing crowds in Red Square in central Moscow after he signed “accession treaties” formalising Russia’s illegal annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine.

Today is a “historic day”, Putin says, “a day of truth and justice”.

He repeats his unfounded claims that Ukraine is “trying to eradicate” the culture of the people who live in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions and says the residents in these regions “made this choice to be with its ancestral motherland” in so-called referendums that Ukraine and the west have denounced as illegal and illegimate.

Putin says:

Russia is not just opening the doors to our home. Russia is opening its own heart. Welcome home.

It is just past 7pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

• Vladimir Putin has signed “accession treaties” formalising Russia’s illegal annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine – Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk – marking the largest forcible takeover of territory in Europe since the second world war. After signing the treaties, the Russian-installed heads of the four regions gathered around Putin, linking hands and joining chants of “Russia! Russia!” with the applauding audience.

• The Kremlin said again on Friday that it would consider attacks against any part of the regions of Ukraine that it is about to annex – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – as acts of aggression against Russia itself. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Russia would “de jure” incorporate parts of Ukraine which are not under the control of Russian forces. Of the four regions, Luhansk and Kherson are the only territories that Russia is close to having total control over.

• In a firm rebuttal to Putin’s ceremony in Moscow, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, announced in a video address in Kyiv that his country was formally applying for fast-track membership of the Nato alliance. Zelenskiy accused Russia of brazenly rewriting history and redrawing borders “using murder, blackmail, mistreatment and lies”, adding that Ukraine would not hold any peace talks with Russia as long as Putin was president.

• Dozens of people were killed after Russian forces launched a missile attack on a civilian convoy near the city of Zaporizhzhia, hours before Putin’s signing ceremony. The attack on Friday morning hit people waiting in cars in Zaporizhzhia city to cross into Russian-occupied territory so they could bring family members back across the frontlines.

• A large number of Russian forces in the strategic Donbas town of Lyman were reported to have been encircled in the latest setback for Putin. Ukrainian and Russian military bloggers said that Russian forces together with local “Luhansk People’s Republic” fighters were encircled in the city of Lyman. The town – a strategic railway junction – has been under Moscow’s control since May. The surrender of Russia’s garrison in Lyman would be a humiliation for the Kremlin, at a time when it is claiming that the entire Donetsk region including areas under Ukrainian government control is a part of Russia “forever”.

• A Russian-installed official in the southern Kherson region of Ukraine has been killed in a Ukrainian missile strike, according to Russian state media. Alexei Katerinichev, who served as the first deputy head for security of the Kremlin-appointed administration of the Kherson region, was killed on Friday in a pinpoint strike by Ukraine using the US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars), Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Moscow-controlled region, said.

• In response to Putin’s annexation of Ukrainian territories, the US announced fresh Russia-related sanctions on hundreds of individuals and companies. More than 1,000 people and firms connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are included in the new sanctions package, including its Central Bank governor and families of National Security Council members.

• The US president, Joe Biden, condemned Russia’s “fraudulent” attempt to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory. Moscow’s actions “have no legitimacy”, Biden said in a statement, adding that the US “will always honour Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders”. The US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said America “will not stand by as Putin fraudulently attempts to annex parts of Ukraine.”.

• The UK is also stepping up sanctions against Russia following the “illegal” annexation of four areas of Ukraine, foreign secretary James Cleverly announced. The measures will restrict Russia’s access to key British commercial and transactional services, as well as ban the export to Russia of almost 700 goods that are critical to manufacturing production, the Foreign Office said.

• The EU executive has called for tighter restrictions on issuing short-stay visas to Russians in response to the Kremlin’s escalation of the war against Ukraine and partial mobilisation order. Ylva Johansson, the EU commissioner for home affairs, insisted it remained possible for Russians to apply for asylum, but said they would not get special treatment.

Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong still with you with all the latest news from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has confirmed that Kyiv has submitted its formal application to join the Nato military alliance.

Shmyhal tweeted a photo showing that he, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the speaker of parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, had signed a formal fast-track Nato membership application.

Eight-and-a-half years after Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of Crimea, he gathered the elites of Russia in the Kremlin’s St George Hall for another land-grab ceremony: this time laying claim to four more Ukrainian regions.

The annexation formalities were preceded by an angry, rambling speech which dwelled only briefly on either Ukraine or the four regions of which Russia now claims ownership. Instead, Putin railed at the west for a litany of sins, ranging from destabilising Russia in the 17th century to allowing gender reassignment surgery.

He also reiterated his threat to use nuclear weapons, claiming the US had “created a precedent” for the use of nuclear force in 1945.

Friday’s speech is likely to go down as another milestone in Putin’s long reign over Russia. And while it was the same hall, the same crowd and the same message as the Crimea annexation in March 2014, the context is very different.

Then, Putin carried much of Russia’s elite and society with him, on a wave of patriotic fervour boosted by state television propaganda. Outside Russia, while many were shocked at the naked land grab, others felt Putin had a point: after Iraq and Libya, how could the west lecture others on violating sovereignty? Many European politicians wanted to get back to business as usual with Russia as quickly as possible.

This time, the domestic and international situations are far less favourable for Putin. At home, he has embarked on an unpopular mobilisation drive, prompting hundreds of thousands of Russians to try to leave the country. The improvements in quality of life that the first years of Putinism brought are drying up amid sanctions and international isolation.

Read the full analysis here:

The former prime minister of the UK, Boris Johnson, has described Vladimir Putin’s speech earlier today announcing the formal annexation of four Ukrainian territories as “a fraud and a disgrace”.

Johnson tweeted:

The world must never accept your sham referendums or your cruel and illegal attempt to colonise Ukraine.

Britain will stand with the people of Ukraine and will support them “without flinching until their country is whole and free”, he added.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said “nothing changes” for Kyiv and that it will continue liberating its territory occupied by Russia.

Kuleba’s tweet came after Vladimir Putin signed “accession treaties” formalising Russia’s illegal annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine.

Kuleba accused the Russian leader of trying to “grab territories he doesn’t even physically control on the ground”.

Vladimir Putin’s decision to sign treaties annexing four occupied regions in Ukraine marks the largest forcible takeover of territory in Europe since the second world war.

Taken together, Russia is annexing at least 40,000 square miles of eastern and southern Ukraine, about 15% of Ukraine’s total area, equal to the size of Portugal or Serbia.

The UK is stepping up sanctions against Russia following the “illegal” annexation of four areas of Ukraine, the foreign secretary James Cleverly has announced.

The measures will restrict Russia’s access to key British commercial and transactional services, as well as ban the export to Russia of almost 700 goods that are critical to manufacturing production, the Foreign Office said.

In a statement, Cleverly said:

The UK utterly condemns Putin’s announcement of the illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory. We will never recognise the results of these sham referendums or any annexation of Ukrainian territory.

The Russian regime must be held to account for this abhorrent violation of international law.

That’s why we are working with our international partners to ramp up the economic pressure through new targeted services bans.

What happens in Ukraine matters to us all, and the UK will do everything possible to assist their fight for freedom.

The announcement of a fresh wave of UK sanctions against Russia comes as the Russian ambassador to London was summoned by Cleverly to protest the Russian annexation of four Ukrainian regions – Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk.