MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st October, 2022) The accession of the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics (DPR, LPR), as well as the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to Russia is a serious violation of international law, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday.
Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the heads of DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions signed agreements on the accession of the territories to Russia and the formation of new subjects within the country, following referenda results that showed that the overwhelming majority of the population, exhausted by intensifying attacks of Ukrainian forces, supported joining Russia.
"I strongly condemn Russia's illegal annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. It is a serious violation of both international law and Ukraine's sovereignty," Macron tweeted.
The French president also pledged that Paris would continue to support Kiev in its attempts to regain sovereignty.
"France expresses its firm opposition and will continue to stand by Ukraine in order to deal with Russian aggression and to enable Ukraine to recover its full sovereignty across its entire territory," the French leader tweeted.
The DPR and LPR proclaimed independence from Ukraine in 2014 after holding referenda on self-determination. In February, Russia recognized the DPR and LPR and launched a special military operation in Ukraine in response to calls by the two breakaway republics to help defend them from intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops.�
