Russia House clears annexation plan; US gives Ukraine $625m aid

MOSCOW/ KYIV: The upper house of Russia’s parliament on Tuesday voted to approve the four regions’ incorporation into Russia, which taken together represent around 18% of Ukraine.

The Kremlin said that Putin’s signature, the final stage in the process, was likely later in the day.

In Brussels, the European Union summoned Russia’s envoy to the EU to reject Moscow’s “illegal annexation” and urge it to unconditionally withdraw all of its troops from the entire territory of Ukraine.

Russia does not completely control any of the four regions it says it is annexing — Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — and the Kremlin has said it has yet to determine the final borders of the annexed territory.

Russian forces in the eastern Donetsk and southern Kherson regions have been forced to retreat in recent days and appear to be struggling to halt an increasingly Western-equipped Ukrainian army.

Moscow is hoping a “partial mobilisation” it announced two weeks ago could help turn the tide.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was cited by the RIA news agency on Tuesday as saying that Russia had so far called up more than 200,000 reservists out of a planned 300,000 men.

President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Ukraine’s northern neighbour and an ally of Putin, accused Kyiv on Tuesday of sending 15,000 troops to the border area to build defences and conduct reconnaissance, actions he called “provocations.”

US President Joe Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday that another $625 million in military assistance, including four HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, is on the way, the White House said.

Biden reaffirmed that his administration will “continue supporting Ukraine as it defends itself from Russian aggression for as long as it takes.”

He said “the United States will never recognize Russia’s purported annexation” of another four Ukrainian regions.

Biden pledged “a new $625 million security assistance package that includes additional weapons and equipment, including HIMARS, artillery systems and ammunition, and armored vehicles,” the statement said.

Ukraine already has 16 of the HIMARS systems, which are widely seen as one of the most effective tools in its arsenal as the pro-western country fights back against a massive eight-month-old Russian invasion.

Meanwhile, Zelensky has pledged to retake more areas in the country’s eastern Donbas region from Russian forces.

“Throughout this week, more Ukrainian flags have been raised in the Donbas. There will be even more in a week,” he said in his evening address.

He spoke ater Kyiv said its forces had begun moving into the key eastern town of Lyman and the defence ministry posted a video of soldiers holding up a yellow and blue Ukrainian flag there.

Russia’sdefenceministrysaidithad“withdrawn” troops from the town “to more favourable lines”.

Zelensky told Russians they would be “knocked out one by one” as long as President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February, remained in power.

“Until you all solve the problem with the one who started it all, who started this senseless war for Russia against Ukraine, you will be knocked out one by one,” he said, calling the war “a historic mistake for Russia”.

In their biggest breakthrough in the south since the seven-month-old war began, Ukrainian forces retook several villages in an advance along the strategic Dnipro River on Monday, Ukrainian officials and a Russian-installed leader in the area said.

In the east, Ukrainian forces have been expanding an offensive ater capturing the main Russian bastion in the north of Donetsk, the town of Lyman, hours ater Putin proclaimed the annexation of the province last week.

Nato has not observed changes in Russia’s nuclear posture but is vigilant, an alliance official said on Tuesday, commenting ater Russian President Vladimir Putin escalated the war in Ukraine with a mobilisation and warnings of nuclear weapons use.

“We have not seen any changes in Russia’s nuclear posture, but Nato and Allies remain vigilant,” the official said.

The official, who declined to be named, added that — as laid out in Nato’s new strategic concept in June — Russia’s expansion of “novel and disruptive dual-capable delivery systems, while employing coercive nuclear signalling” was a challenge to the defence alliance’s security and interests.

Russia’s claimed annexation of Ukrainian territory will only exacerbate human rights violations, the UN rights office said on Tuesday as it outlined the “unspeakable suffering and devastation” inflicted on Ukrainians.