What is annexation?

Vladimir Putin is staking a false claim to sovereign Ukrainian territory

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks as Leonid Pasechnik, leader of self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, left, and Denis Pushilin, leader of self-proclaimed of the Donetsk People's Republic, right, stand near him during celebrations marking the incorporation of regions of Ukraine to join Russia in Red Square with the Spasskaya Tower on the right, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. The signing of the treaties making the four regions part of Russia follows the completion of the Kremlin-orchestrated "referendums." (Sergei Karpukhin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Sep 30th 2022

ON SEPTEMBER 30TH Vladimir Putin signed documents to annex four partially occupied Ukrainian provinces—Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk. Sham referendums had been conducted at gunpoint there, with little pretence of legitimacy. According to the Kremlin, in each province at least 87% of voters (and a preposterous 99% in Donetsk) voted for the land where they lived to become part of Russia. In his speech Mr Putin did not use the word “annex”, but he did claim that the territory (some 17% of Ukraine) would be “our citizens forever”. In reality Russia has no right to this territory. Its claim to Crimea, a strategic peninsula it occupied in 2014, is similarly bogus. But in both cases Mr Putin has presented the illegal act as reunification, not annexation. What is annexation, and why is it important to use the word?

This article appeared in the The Economist explains section of the print edition under the headline “What is annexation?”