US President Joe Biden has warned Vladimir Putin that US will defend “every single inch” of NATO territory as Russia formally annexed four Ukraine regions.
President Putin on Friday proclaimed the biggest annexation in Europe since World War 2, declaring Russian rule over 15% of Ukraine territory occupied by Russian forces.
Biden has angrily warned Putin against making any threat to NATO territory as the Russian tyrant escalated his nation’s war against Ukraine.
“America’s fully prepared with our NATO allies to defend every single inch of NATO territory. Every single inch,” Biden said at the White House.
“So, Mr Putin, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. Every inch,” said Biden.
“America and its allies are not going, let me emphasise this, are not going to be intimidated by Putin and his reckless words and threats,” Biden said.
“He’s not going to scare us, and he doesn’t intimidate us. Putin’s actions are a sign he’s struggling.”
Biden was speaking just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country is submitting an “accelerated” application to join the US-backed military alliance NATO.
In an aggressive speech on Friday, Putin criticised the West as neo-colonial and Satanist.
Russia moved to annex the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in eastern and southern Ukraine after holding what it called referendums - votes that were denounced by Kyiv and Western governments as illegal and coercive.
It comes as Russian forces in one of the four regions being annexed face being encircled by Ukrainian troops after Putin ordered a massive mobilisation drive to get hundreds of thousands of Russian men to the front.
In one of his toughest anti-West speeches in more than two decades in power, Putin signalled he was ready to continue what he called a battle for a "greater historical Russia".
He also slammed the West as neo-colonial and as out to destroy his country, and without evidence accused Washington and its allies of blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
The four Ukrainian regions that he said Russia was absorbing had made an historic choice, he said.
"They have made a choice to be with their people, their motherland, to live with its fate, and to triumph with it. Truth is on our side. Russia is with us!" Putin told his country's political elite.
They had gathered in one of the Kremlin's grandest halls to watch him sign the annexation documents.
"People living in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region are becoming our compatriots forever," said Putin, referring to the regions that he said Russia was annexing.
"We will defend our land with all our strength and all our means," he said, calling on "the Kyiv regime to immediately cease hostilities and return to the negotiation table".
He said the United States had set a precedent when it had dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945, but stopped short of issuing new nuclear warnings against Ukraine himself, something he has done more than once in recent weeks.
The ceremony culminated in the 69-year-old leader chanting "Russia! Russia!" as he clasped the hands of the Russian-backed officials he wants to run the annexed regions, which Ukraine is fighting to win back.
Thousands of people, some of them clutching Russian flags, then packed into Moscow's Red Square to hear celebratory pop music.
Putin told the crowds: "Victory will be ours!"
US President Joe Biden condemned what he called Russia's "fraudulent attempt" to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory and said new sanctions would hurt those who provided political or economic support to the annexation drive.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg called on Putin to end a war he had started, while Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said he was only ready for peace talks if and when Russia got a new president.
He also announced that Ukraine was formally applying for fast-track membership of the NATO military alliance, something Moscow fiercely opposes, and accused Russia of redrawing borders "using murder, blackmail, mistreatment and lies".
He said however that Kyiv remained committed to the idea of co-existence with Russia "on equal, honest, dignified and fair conditions".
"Clearly, with this Russian president it is impossible. He does not know what dignity and honesty are. Therefore, we are ready for a dialogue with Russia, but with another president of Russia," Zelensky said.
Ukraine and the West have condemned referendums that Moscow held in the four Ukrainian regions - and said showed big majorities to join Russia - as illegal shams.
Several dozen Ukrainians in the last week said that only people they described as "Russian collaborators" had voted, with most people boycotting them.
