On Saturday, one year after Russia annexed the Ukrainian regions of Kherson region, Zaporozhye, Donetsk and Luhansk, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to rebuild the war-torn regions, dpa and Agerpres reported.

“Schools, hospitals, residential buildings and roads, museums and monuments” will be rebuilt, Putin said, according to a Kremlin press release.

He added that all regions of Russia provide “fraternal assistance” to reconstruction.

“We are facing a big task and solving complex problems, implementing a big program of reconstruction and socio-economic development of our historical regions. And we will definitely achieve our goals,” Putin said in a video message.

Russia violated international law and formalized the annexation of the occupied regions of Ukraine through referendums that are internationally considered fraudulent and illegitimate.

On September 30, 2022, Putin signed agreements with the leaders of the four occupied Ukrainian regions, which he thus declared constituent parts of the Russian Federation.

On Saturday, Putin called the annexation, which is not recognized by most of the world’s states, “a historic and predetermined event.” He thanked the residents of the occupied territories, saying that their decision strengthened Russia more than ever. “We are one people. And together we will overcome everything, we will find answers to all problems.”

Ukraine continues its counteroffensive to liberate all Russian-occupied territories, including the Crimean peninsula, which was also annexed by Russia in 2014. More than a year and a half after the start of the war, Russia does not fully control any of the four annexed territories. regions in 2022.