Russia has responded to President Trump’s new hardline Ukraine strategy with a mix of defiance and veiled threats. -The Foreign Ministry has slammed the 50-day ultimatum as “unacceptable blackmail,” while former president Dmitry Medvedev has taken a more belligerent tone,

Item 1 of 2 Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a concert marking the declared annexation of the Russian-controlled territories of four Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia ...

Annexation fails to hide gulf between what Putin wants and what his forces can hold Analysis by Nick Paton Walsh , CNN 5 minute read

The Russian government has been on the defensive since the Ukrainians launched their counteroffensive at the end of August. And now the referenda and annexation moves today are basically Vladimir ...

But that, too, cannot justify Russia's annexation plan. The referenda were rife with coercion and fraud to the point where people have been literally forced to vote for annexation at gunpoint.