Russia Illegally Annexes Four Ukrainian Oblasts

On September 30, 2022, Vladimir Putin signed treaties claiming to annex four partially occupied Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts — following sham referendums held under military occupation. Russia did not fully control any of these territories at the time of annexation. The United Nations General Assembly voted 143 to 5 condemning the annexations as illegal. The move, combining with the Crimea annexation, claimed approximately 18 percent of Ukraine's internationally recognized territory. Ukraine and its allies rejected the annexations as null and void under international law, and fighting continued within the claimed territories.