Russia had “four new regions,” Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in a speech in the Kremlin yesterday, hours after an attack on a frontline civilian convoy killed at least 25 people near Zaporizhzhia City, in one of the four partly Russian-held region’s of Ukraine that Moscow sought to annex.
Putin has warned he could use nuclear weapons to retain control of those regions — Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Lugansk.
In Ukraine, authorities said they would launch an investigation into the attack.
Photo: AFP
“Twenty-five killed and about 50 wounded in an attack by the Russian military on a humanitarian convoy in Zaporizhzhia. Investigation launched,” the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office wrote on Telegram.
Bodies of people wearing civilian clothes were left on the ground after the attack and windows of vehicles blown out.
“Only complete terrorists could do this,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. “Bloodthirsty scum! You will definitely answer.”
Photo: REUTERS
“The enemy launched rockets on a civilian convoy leaving the city center” Zaporizhzhia Governor Oleksandr Starukh said.
However, Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-appointed official in the nearby town of Enerhodar, accused Ukrainian troops of carrying out a “terrorist act.”
“The regime in Kyiv is trying to portray what happened as shelling by Russian troops, resorting to a heinous provocation,” he said on social media.
Preparations were underway in Moscow’s Red Square throughout the day yesterday for state-organized celebrations to announce the annexation of the four regions.
Workers installed banners saying: “Donetsk. Lugansk. Zaporizhzhia. Kherson. Russia!”
“I’m happy if they want to join Russia,” Natalya Bodner, a 37-year-old lawyer told Agence France-Presse in central Moscow. “They have more hope than we do.”
“It should have been done a long time ago,” Ildar Babaev, a Russian service member from the southern region of Dagestan said. “This is the right decision.”
The four regions create a crucial land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
However, ahead of Putin’s announcement, the Kremlin had said it “needed to clarify” the exact borders of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — which are not fully controlled by Moscow’s forces.
Together, the four regions and Crimea make up about 20 percent of Ukraine, whose troops have over the past few weeks been clawing back wins as part of a counteroffensive.
Ukrainian forces are on the doorstep of Lyman in Donetsk, which Moscow’s forces pummeled for weeks to capture this summer.
“Lyman is partially surrounded,” Denis Pushilin, the pro-Moscow leader in the breakaway region, said on social media.
Two nearby villages were “not fully under our control,” he added.
In Sloviansk, a city in Donetsk, a Ukrainian military medic who goes by the name of Coconut said the annexations were nonsense.
“If my neighbor comes to my house and announces that it’s his, nobody believes it actually belongs to him,” he said.
In Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday condemned the elections Russia had held in the four regions ahead of the annexation.
“The government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) solemnly condemns Russia’s ambition to annex Ukraine’s territory through a fake referendum,” it said. “Russia has blatantly violated the UN Charter through its invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory, which undermines the rules-based international order.”
Taiwan reiterated its position of unanimity with like-minded countries as it refuses to recognize the results of Russia’s referendum in Ukraine, it said.
Taiwan would work with the EU, the US and other democracies to take appropriate countermeasures in response to the elections, it said.
Additional reporting by Yang Cheng-yu
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS