Russia will never give up newly annexed territories in Ukraine, Putin insists at ceremony

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the process of annexing parts of Ukraine Friday by saying he was signing laws to absorb them despite international condemnation — and that he would protect the newly incorporated regions using "all available means."

In a speech preceding a treaty-signing ceremony to make four Ukrainian regions part of Russia, Putin warned his country would never give up the occupied areas and would protect them as part of its sovereign territory.

He urged Ukraine to sit down for talks to end the fighting but warned sternly that Russia would never surrender control of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. He accused the West of fuelling the hostilities as part of its plan to turn Russia into a "colony" and a "crowds of slaves."

The Russian ceremony comes three days after the completion of Kremlin-orchestrated "referendums" on joining Russia that were dismissed by Kyiv and the West as a bare-faced land grab, held at gunpoint and based on lies.

Responding to Putin's call for negotiations, Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said, "We are ready for a dialogue with Russia, but with another president of Russia."

Zelenskyy also said country is submitting an "accelerated" application to join the NATO military alliance.

The event in the Kremlin's opulent white-and-gold St. George's Hall was organized for Putin and the heads of the four regions of Ukraine to sign treaties for the areas to join Russia.

The separatist Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Eastern Ukraine have been backed by Moscow since declaring independence in 2014, weeks after the annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. The southern Kherson region and part of the neighbouring Zaporizhzhia were captured by Russia soon after Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Both houses of the Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament will meet next week to rubber-stamp the treaties, after which Putin will sign them into law.

Putin and his lieutenants have bluntly warned Ukraine against pressing an offensive to reclaim the regions, saying the nuclear power would view it as an act of aggression against its sovereign territory and wouldn't hesitate to use "all means available" in retaliation.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said in a statement that Canada is imposing measures on 43 Russian oligarchs, financial elites and their family members, along with 35 Russia-backed senior officials in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

"These individuals and entity are complicit in President Putin's desperate attempt to undermine the principles of state sovereignty, and share responsibility for the ongoing senseless bloodshed throughout Ukraine," said Joly.

The U.S. on Friday sanctioned more than 1,000 people and firms connected to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including its Central Bank governor and families of National Security Council members. The Treasury Department named hundreds of members of Russia's legislature, leaders of the country's financial and military infrastructure and suppliers for sanctions designations. The Commerce Department added 57 companies to its list of export control violators.

"We will not stand by as Putin fraudulently attempts to annex parts of Ukraine," said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.