Putin vows to defend illegally seized regions in Ukraine by ‘all available means’

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• Judy Woodruff:

  In a grand ceremony at the Kremlin today, Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed papers to formally, but illegally, annex four regions in Ukraine, an area the size of Ohio, after what the West calls sham referendums.

  The U.S. and allies responded with tougher sanctions and reiterated their support for Ukraine. That all happened at the same time as one of Russia's deadliest strikes on civilians.

  Nick Schifrin begins our coverage.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Today's reality, the body of a Ukrainian civilian killed by a Russian rocket. Today's alternate reality, a Red Square celebration of conquest, a euphoric concert marking Russian annexation.

  Reality, Ukrainian soldiers reseizing their own territory from Russian occupiers. Alternate reality, a handpicked audience cheers Russian President Vladimir Putin's calling today a day of truth and justice.

  And yet today's formal annexation signing with the four Russian-appointed leaders of Ukrainian districts is the war's largest escalation since invasion.

• Vladimir Putin, Russian President (through translator):

  We will defend our land using all forces at our disposal and will do everything we can to protect the security of our people.

• Nick Schifrin:

  And to an ecstatic audience of elites, Putin rallied against the West and what he defined as the culture.

• Vladimir Putin (through translator):

  To maintain its unlimited power is the real reason for the hybrid war that the collective West is waging against Russia. Do we really want in our schools from the elementary grades that children are taught that, besides a man and a woman, there are other genders? Such a rejection of faith and traditional values begins to look like a perverted religion, outright satanism.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Putin raised his nuclear rhetoric by recalling U.S. attacks on World War II Japan.

• Vladimir Putin (through translator):

  The United States is the only country in the world to use nuclear weapons twice, destroying the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Actually, they set a precedent.

  Joe Biden, President of the United States: Putin's actions are a sign he's struggling, the sham referenda he carried out.

• Nick Schifrin:

  In response, President Biden vowed never to respect any Russian claim to Ukrainian land.

• Joe Biden:

  He can't seize his neighbor's territory and get away with it. It's as simple as that.

• Nick Schifrin:

  And the U.S. government sanctioned more than 1,000 Russian people and companies, including Elvira Nabiullina, Russia's Central Bank governor, who's helped the Russian economy survive, almost 300 Russian lawmakers, family members of Russia's National Security Council, Russians accused of torturing Ukrainians, and Russian military procurement officials.

  President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used today to formally apply for an accelerated plan to become a NATO member. And he ruled out negotiations with Putin.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President (through translator):

  It is obvious that this is impossible with this Russian president. He does not know what dignity and honesty are. Therefore, we are ready for a dialogue with Russia, but with a different president of Russia.

• Nick Schifrin:

  National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Ukraine's NATO membership should be — quote — "taken up at a different time."

  But Putin nuclear threats top the administration's current concerns.

• Jake Sullivan, U.S. National Security Adviser:

  There is a risk of, given all of the loose talk and the nuclear saber-rattling by Putin, that he would consider this. And we have been equally clear about what the consequences would be.

• Nick Schifrin:

  And to examine Putin's nuclear threats and annexation announcement today and where all this leaves the war, I'm joined by Fiona Hill, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

  Fiona Hill, thank you very much. Welcome back to the "NewsHour."

• Fiona Hill, Former National Security Council Official:

  Thanks, Nick.

• Nick Schifrin:

  The Kremlin, of course, has faced battlefield setbacks in the last few days and weeks.

  Putin recently has been criticized by China and India. What do you think is the context for why Putin is announcing annexation today?

• Fiona Hill:

  Well, it's clearly to change the entire nature of the battlefield.

  What he's done in annexing this territory is basically transform this into a defensive war, rather than an offensive wall, at least certainly rhetorically. I mean, of course, this is completely illegitimate. But he's now saying that these territories are, in fact, part of Russia, in fact, he said part of Russia forever, and that, therefore, any kind of attack on the territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as any of the territories in the Donbass and even further afield to Crimea, will now be seen as an attack on Russia itself.

  And his hope then is that the call-up of Russian troops, the mobilization that we have seen over the last several days, this partial mobilization, will, in fact, encourage now people to the battlefield, we won't be seeing so much of these defections, because people will realize that they're in this all-out battle, he said, with the West, not just with Ukraine, and this is a battle for Russia's survival.

  So he's really taken it up several notches, and he's therefore justifying any kind of action against the West.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Of course, you just said any kind of action. And he brandished what Jake Sullivan today called nuclear saber-rattling.

  Putin said the U.S. had created — quote — "the precedent of using nuclear weapons." Sullivan said the U.S. is taking it very seriously.

  How serious do you think Putin is?

• Fiona Hill:

  I think taking that on the rhetorical level, where he's been very serious about creating this framing there, I think we have to take this to the court of international reaction, in other words, take this to the United Nations and get pushback here as well.

  But we have to take this threat seriously. Putin is always the kind of person that, when he threatens something, he wants to deliver on it. So we should take that seriously. But I think we should also be very seriously engaged in diplomacy now to push back and to point out how outrageous not just his statements are, but some of the claims and the distortions of history.

• Nick Schifrin:

  As you just said, the push on diplomacy, of course, would require Ukraine. And Zelenskyy, as we heard earlier, said he would be happy to negotiate with Russia once Putin was no longer president.

  There are no negotiations today, and there's not much of a chance on either side for negotiations. But does Zelenskyy's statement and the annexation forestall or further forestall any possibility for diplomacy to end this war?

• Fiona Hill:

  It doesn't forestall diplomacy at all.

  But I think what it does make very difficult, of course, is some kind of negotiated compromise settlement. Putin's basically saying there is no room for compromise. We have just annexed this territory. It's going to be Russia's in perpetuity. He's also got his eyes on the further extension of the military conflict, when we have seen throughout all the periods since 2014 Russia used to talk about this idea of Novorossiya, new Russia, which also includes Odessa.

  We have seen attacks on Odessa. We have seen threats against Moldova, the country next to Ukraine, for example. That might also fall under this rubric of new Russia. And he repeated new Russia several times during the speech.

  So the point here is that he's basically saying, I'm not going to negotiate on the basis of this territory that I have taken. He's basically wanting to have Ukraine negotiate for the terms of its surrender. This is the largest annexation since World War II. It's turned the whole global strategic balance on its head. And there has to be, then, a commensurate international reaction.

  So I think that's where the next phase of our diplomacy has to be focused, which is getting other countries worldwide to push back on this act that Vladimir Putin has undertaken today.

• Nick Schifrin:

  And, finally, the pipelines that take natural gas from Russia into Europe exploded earlier this week. Today, President Biden said the damage was — quote — "deliberate act of sabotage."

  Jake Sullivan said that there were very few countries capable of such an act of sabotage, but that the damage was — quote — "not caused by a NATO country."

  Do you believe Russia would have sabotaged their own pipelines?

• Fiona Hill:

  Actually, I do, especially given one element in the speech today which I was watching very closely.

  Putin talks about — he calls the U.K. and the United States the Anglo-Saxons together, and suggests that the U.K. and the United States might have done this as a diversion, blowing up the pipelines and, as he says then, rupturing the whole edifice of European energy security.

  And then he says, well, people speculate on, who does this benefit? And then he smirks. And you can see this because the camera in the Kremlin auditorium basically homed in just as he said this and caught the smirk on his face. It's almost like he couldn't stop himself from smirking.

  And he says, well, of course, the person who benefits is the person who did it. And it made it very clear to me that this was ordered by the Kremlin.

  But what he doesn't mention is, of course, that he is basically continuing to export oil. So that's the next front to be mindful of. Putin always does something when he — like this, something destructive, when he thinks that he can leverage something else.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Fiona Hill of the Brookings Institution, thank you very much.

• Fiona Hill:

  Thanks, Nick.