Amid the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a statement regarding the citizens of some Moscow-held Ukraine regions. He claimed that residents of Moscow-held regions in Ukraine expressed their desire to be part of Russia in recent local elections on Saturday.In the one-year anniversary of Russias controversial announcement of annexing four parts of Ukraine, the Kremlin leader released a video address saying that the choice to join Russia was reinforced in this years local elections that saw officials returning in support of Russias annexation.Putin makes new claimThe four-minute-long video featuring Putin can be heard talking about peoples support for his government. He said, “Just as a year ago in the historic referendums, people again expressed and confirmed their will to be with Russia and supported their countrymen who, through their labour and real actions, proved worthy of the peoples trust.”Putin stood firm by his remark that the 2022 Ukraine invasion had saved people from nationalist leaders in Kyiv who had engulfed the country in a “full-scale civil war” and terrorized the ones who thought differently.One year anniversaryFour Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, were formally brought into Russia after referendums on September 30. 2022. According to media reports, Moscow said that these referendums returned overwhelming majorities in favour.However, sources suggest that the Western countries have dismissed such claims and called such outcomes meaningless and illegal annexation, underpinned by mass coercion of voters.Russian forces also do not control have complete control of any region.The Ukrainian government had initially withstood the Russian advancements to Kyiv with the help of its western allies but the war has now shifted to the areas held by Russia in the east and south. Moreover, The Ukrainian forces also launched a counteroffensive to recapture those areas.
