<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed laws absorbing four Ukrainian regions into Russia. The move finalises the annexation of the regions into Russia in defiance of international law.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Both of houses of Russian parliament have also ratified the treaties to include the Ukrainian regions into Russia. The four regions include Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The move by the Russian parliament and Vladimir Putin followed Kremlin-backed “referendums” in the regions which were rejected by Ukraine and the West as sham.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Earlier today, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv's military had made major and rapid advances against Moscow's forces in the past week. Ukraine has taken back dozens of towns in the south and east that Russia has declared annexed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This week alone, since the Russian pseudo-referendum, dozens of population centres have been liberated. These are in Kherson, Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions all together," Zelensky said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russian forces in the Donetsk and Kherson regions have been forced to retreat and are struggling to fight the increasingly Western-equipped Ukrainian army.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"In some areas of the front line it was possible to extend the area we hold from between 10 to 20 km," the southern Operational Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) said on Wednesday. HT</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>