Putin declares 4 regions of Ukraine part of Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees on Friday to declare four Ukrainian regions part of Russia as the Kremlin seeks to solidify its tenuous hold over Ukrainian territory through a widely denounced illegal annexation. "This is the will of millions of people," he said.

"This is their inalienable right." The Russian leader spoke in the chandeliered St. George's Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palacethe same place where he declared in March 2014 that the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea was part of Russia. Hundreds of Russian members of Parliament and regional governors sat in the audience for Putin's speech, as well as many of his cabinet ministers and the four Russian-imposed leaders of the occupied Ukrainian regions.