Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed the final papers to annex four regions of Ukraine – even as his military suffered a further setback.
The documents state that the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Kherson have been “accepted into the Russian Federation”.
But in two of those areas – Luhansk and Kherson – Ukraine said it was seizing more villages.
Mr Putin also signed a decree formalizing Russia’s occupation of a nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia.
Last Friday, the Russian leader held a grand ceremony in the Kremlin, where he signed agreements with Moscow-appointed leaders of the four regions.
The move followed self-styled referendums in the region, which were condemned as a “fraud” by the West.
But a different reality appears on the ground, with Ukrainian forces making gains both in the south and east.
The Ukrainian governor of Luhansk, Serhii Hedai, told on Wednesday that six villages in the region had been recaptured.
And President Zelensky later said that Ukraine had liberated three more villages in the southern region of Kherson.
It launched a series of successes in Kherson yesterday, including the strategically key village of Davydiv Brid.
Meanwhile, the southern city of Zaporizhzhia was rocked by a series of loud explosions an hour before dawn.
Local officials say seven Russian missiles fell on residential buildings and people were buried under the rubble. There are no reports of casualties yet.
