"Putin will eventually visit the Donbas," Dmitry Peskov told the Russian news agency TASS on 3 December 2022.Currently, Russia controls only a half of Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine. Heavy fighting between the Russian forces and the Ukrainian army rage on around the cities of Bakhmut and Soledar (the western part of Donetsk Oblast), which are the hottest spots on the war map at this point. The Russian President Vladimir Putin formally approved the annexation of the occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts of Ukraine on 30 September 2022.
Five consequences of Russia’s annexation of occupied Ukrainian territoriesBack in 2014, the Russian forces occupied Crimea, the peninsula in southern Ukraine, and organized a sham referendum in support of its illegal annexation by the Russian Federation. However, most countries in the world recognize Crimea and four recently annexed oblasts of Ukraine as the Ukrainian territory. The United Nations General Assembly Resolution no. 68/262, adopted on 27 March 2014, recognized Crimea as an integral part of Ukraine. According to the United Nations General Assembly Resolution ES-11/4, adopted on 12 October 2022, Russia's annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts is illegal and invalid. Related:
- Mobilization and "referenda": Russia escalates the confrontation with the West
- Do Crimeans await liberation from Russians?
- The myth of "historically Russian Crimea": colonialism, deconstructed
- Over 80% of Ukrainians want to return occupied Crimea and Donbas
