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Ukraine has joined Spain and Portugal in their bidto host the 2030 World Cup.

The partnership between the three countries was confirmed by leaders of the countries' three soccer federations at UEFA headquarters Wednesday.

"This is the dream of millions of Ukrainian fans. The dream of people who survived the horrors of war or are still in the occupied territories, over which the Ukrainian flag will surely fly soon," said Andriy Pavelko, president of Ukraine's soccer federation, at a news conference Wednesday.

He said the move was sanctioned by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine has been under full-scale invasion by Russia since February.

Details were not given on how many games would be held in Ukraine, or in which cities, but the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv hosted the finals of the 2012 European Championship and the 2018 Champions League.

"Now it's not the Iberian bid, it's the European bid," Spain's soccer federation president, Luis Rubiales, said at the news conference, according to the Associated Press. "Together we represent the power of transformation football has in society."

Spain and Portugal previouslyannounced their joint bid in June 2021. The new bid faces competition from a collaboration between Egypt, Greece and Saudi Arabia, and a South American bid between Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Chile.

FIFA will vote to choose the host in 2024.

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Ukraine joins Spain and Portugal's joint bid to host 2030 World Cup - CNBC

Tourists by the boulevard at a Black Sea resort in Odesa, Ukraine, on Sept. 3. Tourists are not allowed to enter the public beach due to the presence of land mines and other explosives. Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto via Getty Images hide caption

Tourists by the boulevard at a Black Sea resort in Odesa, Ukraine, on Sept. 3. Tourists are not allowed to enter the public beach due to the presence of land mines and other explosives.

SLAVSKE, Ukraine Ukraine's war-battered economy is expected to shrink by at least a third this year, hitting virtually every sector. This includes the tourism industry, which officials say had started to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

But the Ukrainian government still hopes its people will continue to travel within the country and spend money in locales on the Black Sea and in the Carpathian Mountains in the west.

"A lot of people in Ukraine still don't feel it's OK to go on vacation or travel," Mariana Oleskiv, chair of Ukraine's State Agency for Tourism Development, tells NPR.

More than seven months into the war, "we understand that many people in our country live in very bad conditions, that some people don't have electricity and our soldiers sleep in trenches," she says.

According to agency data provided to NPR, domestic tourism, which the agency defines as leaving your home city for leisure, increased 24% between 2019 and 2021. Nearly 4.2 million foreign tourists visited Ukraine in 2021 a 30% jump over the previous year.

Oleskiv says she forecasted that the trend would continue into 2022, but then the war started.

Trips into Ukraine by international tourists are down between 85% and 90%, says Oleskiv. Tour operators in safer areas of Ukraine reported to the government that occupancy rates are down 50% this summer compared to last. She says tourism in places such as Odesa and other parts of southern Ukraine closer to the front line of the conflict has "stopped completely."

Tourists take the Soviet-era Zakhar Berkut resort chairlift in Slavske, Ukraine, in August. The tourist town is located in the Carpathian Mountains, a wildly popular vacation destination for Ukrainians. Ashley Westerman/NPR hide caption

Tourists take the Soviet-era Zakhar Berkut resort chairlift in Slavske, Ukraine, in August. The tourist town is located in the Carpathian Mountains, a wildly popular vacation destination for Ukrainians.

The slowdown is being felt across the country, including in the Carpathian Mountains, a popular vacation destination in the relatively safe western part of the country.

Katerina Minich manages the Dvir Kniazhoiy Korony hotel in Slavske, a popular ski resort town about 85 miles south of Lviv. Minich tells NPR that the number of guests at her 15-room hotel is down about 60% from last year.

"Overall, from February to [August], the hotel's earnings are 70 to 80% lower" compared to last year, Minich said by text message. She says other hotels in Slavske, whose population has shrunk since the war broke out, have experienced a similar drop in guests and revenues.

Tourists ski near the Chornohora mountain range, part of the Carpathian Mountains, in western Ukraine on Feb. 21, 2021, one year before the Russian invasion. Markiian Lyseiko/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images hide caption

Tourists ski near the Chornohora mountain range, part of the Carpathian Mountains, in western Ukraine on Feb. 21, 2021, one year before the Russian invasion.

The true damage Russia's full-scale ground invasion has wrought on Ukraine's domestic tourism sector won't be fully known for months, Oleskiv says. But her agency plans to start trying to turn things around with a new tourism campaign called "Get Inspired by Ukraine" which she says aims to tell Ukrainians they have a right to take a rest.

"At some point, we need to stop and take a breath and don't be so involved in the news," Oleskiv says.

Some Ukrainians are already following the advice.

"I think that in order to be more effective, you have to relax sometimes," Natalii Baliuk, 35, from Kyiv said on a visit to Slavske in August. "Otherwise, you just will not be able to do anything and you cannot serve this country."

Baliuk and her friends traveled to the Carpathians for Ukrainian Independence Day not only because they believed it to be safe, but also because one of her friends could not travel abroad because martial law prevents men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving Ukraine.

The conflict in Ukraine could affect tourism throughout all of Europe, according to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Russian and Ukrainian tourists spend a combined $45 billion a year, but that number is expected to decrease. In addition to the loss of tourists, the report says the conflict will also raise food and fuel prices, affect traveler confidence and disposable incomes, and restrict airlines and airspace.

Vendors sell food, beverages and souvenirs at a lookout spot in Slavske, Ukraine, in August. The week of Ukrainian Independence Day, the tourist town saw a small spike in visitors, but overall tourism this summer was down significantly across the Carpathian Mountains because of the war. Ashley Westerman/NPR hide caption

Vendors sell food, beverages and souvenirs at a lookout spot in Slavske, Ukraine, in August. The week of Ukrainian Independence Day, the tourist town saw a small spike in visitors, but overall tourism this summer was down significantly across the Carpathian Mountains because of the war.

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With Ukraine at war, officials hope to bring tourism back to areas away from fighting - NPR

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Russias brutal and unprovoked February 24 further invasion of Ukraine has flooded communities in its eastern, central, and southern regions with deadly explosive hazards, including landmines, unexploded bombs and munitions, and improvised explosive devices. These explosive remnants of war continue to kill and maim innocent Ukrainian civilians, while the threat they pose also blocks access to fertile farmland, delays reconstruction efforts, and prevents displaced families from returning to their homes. According to Government of Ukraine estimates, as much as 160,000 square kilometers of its land may be contaminated an area roughly the size of Virginia, Maryland, and Connecticut combined.

A new initiative supported by the U.S. State Department is working to save lives and prevent injuries by using soccer to raise local awareness about these hidden hazards. This $1.5 million program, managed by the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the Departments Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, is led by Spirit of Soccer, one of our partners working worldwide to save lives and help communities recovering from conflict.

Coach Scotty Lee founded Spirit of Soccer in 1996 after witnessing first-hand the impact landmines and unexploded munitions have on communities during his time as a volunteer aid worker in the Balkans. Since then, Spirit of Soccer has been dedicated to using soccer skills clinics and tournaments to teach Explosive Ordnance Risk Education to more than 1 million children in 14 countries, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, Iraq, and Kosovo.

Working in partnership with the Ukrainian Football Association and the Amateur Association of Football of Ukraine (AAFU), Spirit of Soccer is currently training 30 coaches from Ukraines Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Chernivtsi regions to teach children Explosive Ordnance Risk Education; in other words, how to recognize, avoid, and report dangerous items to local authorities, increasing their safety and that of their friends, neighbors, and community, while also having fun playing soccer.

In Bucha and Irpin, two cities that remain significantly covered in unexploded Russian bombs and explosive hazards, Spirit of Soccer and its local partners recently staged the first in a series of more than 1,400 soccer clinics and 30 tournaments expected to reach an estimated 40,000 children, to spread the word about the risk of explosive hazards and help keep kids safe as communities work toward survey and clearance efforts to eliminate unexploded munitions for good.

The United States is proud to support Ukraines efforts to address the impacts of explosive hazards in Ukraine. Since 2004, we have invested more than $77 million to help Ukraine address both its legacy conventional weapons challenges as well as survey and clearance efforts to mitigate the deadly explosive hazards left behind by Russias initial invasion in 2014 and its renewed assault in 2021. As Ukraine continues to assess the impacts of Russias ongoing invasion, we intend to provide more than $90 million in assistance in the coming year to address explosive hazards, including through Spirit of Soccers important effort, as well as working to train and equip approximately 100 Ukrainian demining teams. We will also support a large-scale train and equip project to strengthen the Government of Ukraines demining and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) capacity, which will be key to future recovery and rebuilding.

The United States is the worlds single largest financial supporter of conventional weapons destruction. Since 1993, the United States has invested more than $4.7 billion for the safe clearance of landmines and explosive remnants of war as well as the securing and safe disposal of excess small arms, light weapons, and munitions in more than 100 countries and territories.

For more information on how the State Department is strengthening human security, facilitating economic development, and fostering stability through demining, risk education, and other conventional weapons destruction activities, check out our annual report,To Walk the Earth in Safety, and follow us on Twitter @StateDeptPM.

About the Author: Andy Strike is a Public Affairs Specialist in the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.

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Soccer Saves Lives: New U.S. Effort in Ukraine to Reduce Risk of Explosive Hazards - United States Department of State - Department of State

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On the morning of April 13th, forty-seven days after Russia began its siege of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, a man in his early twenties whom Ill call Taras heard his dog barking in the front yard. Two days earlier, Ukraines President, Volodymyr Zelensky, had pronounced Mariupol completely destroyed. Russian forces had bombed or otherwise damaged ninety per cent of the buildings, including dozens of schools and a maternity hospital. The mayor estimated that at least twenty-one thousand residents had been killed. Taras had spent the better part of the siege with his family in a small basement, without electricity or running water. He would surface intermittently to collect buckets of rain to drink or to prepare meals of wheat porridge over a wood fire. All the cell-phone towers were down. But Taras had learned through an acquaintance that a close friend in an adjacent neighborhood was still alive, and he invited his friend to come get drunk and cry a little. When Taras heard the dog barking, he assumed his friend had arrived and rushed out to greet him.

This piece was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

At the door were two men in military fatigues, cradling assault rifles. Taras could tell that they were Russians by the white bands wrapped above their knees and elbows, which the occupying army used to avoid friendly fire. There were also distinctions in their accents; the men applied a hard g where Ukrainians use an airy h in words like govori, or speak.

Who lives here? one of the soldiers asked.

Me and my family, Taras said.

The men walked past him and began to search the house, room by room. They took down Tarass full name. They noted the make and model of his car. One of the soldiers studied Tarass vehicle registration, and observed that it listed a different address. Taras tried to explain that before the siege he had had an apartment across town. Outside! the soldier shouted. You must go through inspection.

Taras had heard that in some neighborhoods men were disappearing. He asked the soldier nervously, How long will it take?

Two hours.

Taras felt a pang of hungerhe hadnt eaten anything since the previous day. He put on his sneakers, bluejeans, and a light jacket. The Russians escorted him to an intersection. He was not alone: six of his neighbors, all men of conscription age, had been rounded up, and were being guarded by a group of soldiers. Glancing down the block, Taras saw more Russians going from house to house, pulling young Ukrainian men into the street. Eventually, there were about forty men gathered with Taras.

A white bus pulled up, and Taras and his neighbors were instructed to board. After they filed in, and the doors closed, one of the Russians stood up and said, You dont know us and we dont know you. We trust you exactly as much as you trust us. He issued a single ground rule: If you act up, well wipe the floor with you. Does everyone understand?

As the bus pulled away, Taras stared out the window. The colossal Illich Iron and Steel Works plant, with its once billowing stacks, rolling conveyor belts, and raging blast furnaces, got smaller and smaller. The day before, Russia claimed that a thousand and twenty-six Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered in its shadow. Taras saw large apartment buildings that had been reduced to rubble, houses missing walls and ceilings. He saw crudely dug graves in yards and, lying under a bridge, three decomposing human bodies. Theres nothing left, he thought. The men in the bus gazed upon the ruins.

After a half hours drive northeast, the bus slowed to a stop in front of a run-down banquet hall, in a semi-urban settlement called Sartana, on the banks of the Kalmius River. The soldiers collected the mens I.D.s and herded them inside. There, a soldier would call out a captives name and bring him into an office, a kind of improvised interrogation room. When Tarass name was called, he walked into the office and found twelve soldiers sitting at several tables.

Have you served in the military? one of them asked.

I wish all this could be yours someday, son, but it belongs to a competitor.

Cartoon by Frank Cotham

No.

Why not?

I have a white ticket, Taras said, referring to a government pass denoting a medical condition that made him unfit for military service. Taras, who had boyish features and shaggy blond hair, had suffered from knee problems after tearing his meniscus playing soccer. The exemption was a disappointment; he had thought he would enlist in the Army, as his father had, and his father before him. Now he simply said, A sports injury.

Undress, another soldier demanded.

Taras stripped down to his underwear. From their seats, the men examined him for tattoos and any markings that might indicate that he had recently seen combatcalluses on the hands, chafing around the neck from a flak jacket, bruising on the shoulder from a firearms recoil.

Baiting him, one of the interrogators asked, Where do you plan to serve?

Nowhere.

At midday, the captives were brought outside. There was snow on the ground. The morning had been overcast andnow it began to rain, compounding the cold. Four more buses arrived, and Taras stood waiting as about a hundred and fifty more captives were processed. By the time he got back on the bus, his jacket and sneakers were soaked through. He was shivering.

The buses continued northeast, crossing into the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic, a breakaway region whose independence Ukraine did not recognize. They stopped in the village of Kozatske, which had fallen to Russian-backed separatists years ago. There, in the cafeteria of an old primary school, each man was given a small serving of watery soup.

As night fell, the captives laid down tightly spaced rows of thin mats in classrooms and corridors. All the detainees appeared to be civilians from Tarass working-class neighborhood, men who had spent the preceding weeks preoccupied not with winning battles but with keeping their families alive, day to day, under conditions of extreme deprivation. Taras himself had already lost more than twenty pounds in less than two months under siege, a conspicuous drop from an already willowy frame. He had developed chronic pain in his chest, which he assumed was from breathing stale basement air or sleeping on concrete.

Taras dragged his mat into a hallway. His stomach growled, and his clothes were still damp from the rain. Hungry, cold, and exhausted, he curled up in a ball and fell into a restless sleep. He had not yet heard a term that would soon become familiar: filtration camp.

Filtration, broadly understood as a process by which a wartime government or a non-state actor identifies and sequesters individuals it deems a threat, does not, in itself, violate international humanitarian law. A recent report by researchers at Yale on Russias occupation of eastern Ukraine notes that occupying powers in international conflicts have the right to register persons within their area of control; the force in control may even detain civilians in certain limited circumstances. The system can comprise various checkpoints, registration facilities, holding centers, and detention camps. At a United Nations Security Council meeting earlier this month, Russias U.N. Ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, went so far as to describe its filtration program as normal military procedure. Whether filtration amounts to normal procedure, or something worse, depends on how it is executedand to what end.

In 1994, Russia launched a full-scale military invasion to retake Chechnya, a separatist enclave that had declared independence three years earlier. The day after Russian tanks rolled in, Russias interior ministry issued Directive No. 247: to establish filtration points for the identification of persons who had been arrested in the zones of combat operations and their involvement in the combat activities. (In Russia, the term filtration point entered into circulation during the Second World War, when Soviet authorities began to screen for what Lavrentiy Beria, the head of Stalins secret police, called enemy elements in territory liberated from the Germans.) The first camp in Chechnyas capital, Grozny, opened on January 20, 1995. The following year, researchers for Human Rights Watch concluded that Russian forces were beating and torturing the Chechen men being held there. Many were subsequently used as human shields in combat and as hostages to be exchanged for Russian detainees.

Three years later, during the Second Chechen War, the Russian general Victor Kazantsev expanded filtration, imposing an identity verification regime in liberated areas and calling for the toughening of search procedures at checkpoints. Chechen civilians were arbitrarily detained in even greater numbers; they were often discharged without their identity documents, limiting their freedom of movement and exposing them to rearrest at checkpoints. An H.R.W. report outlined what had become a standard strategy: Russian forces would bombard Chechen communities, then conduct a mop-up whereby soldiers went house to house arresting men, and sometimes women, suspected of having ties to rebel forces.

The researchers described the filtration process in Chechnya as a form of collective punishment imposed not only on the disappeared but also on their families. One woman, referring to a male relative who had been taken away, told the researchers, Hes nowherenot among the living, not among the dead. The prominent human-rights group Memorial, which Russias Supreme Court shut down earlier this year, estimated that during Russias two wars in Chechnya at least seventy thousand civilians perished and more than two hundred thousand Chechens passed through filtration camps.

In early 2014, Russian forces invaded and annexed Crimea. Several months later, a Russian humanitarian convoy, ultimately comprising an estimated twelve thousand troops, entered the Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, in support of the D.P.R. and the so-called Luhansk Peoples Republic. The following winter, the Ukrainian parliament commissioned fifteen international and Ukrainian human-rights organizations to prepare a report on places of illegal detention in occupied parts of the Donbas. The report, published in 2015, identified seventy-nine facilities administered by Russian forces and Russian-affiliated armed groups. Based on extensive testimony, the authors found a widespread practice of torture and cruel treatment of illegally detained civilians and military personnel.

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Inside Russias Filtration Camps in Eastern Ukraine - The New Yorker

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a speech during a ceremony formally annexing four regions of Ukraine Russian troops occupy, at the Kremlin in Moscow on Friday. Gavriil Grigorov/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a speech during a ceremony formally annexing four regions of Ukraine Russian troops occupy, at the Kremlin in Moscow on Friday.

MOSCOW Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved to formally annex four Ukrainian territories, signing what he calls "accession treaties" that world powers refuse to recognize. It's Putin's latest attempt to redraw the map of Europe at Ukraine's expense.

"The people made their choice," said Putin in a signing ceremony at the Kremlin's St. George hall. "And that choice won't be betrayed" by Russia, he said.

The Russian leader called on Ukraine to end hostilities and hold negotiations with Moscow but insisted that the status of the annexed territories was not up for discussion.

"I want the authorities in Kyiv and their real overlords in the West to hear me: The residents of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson are becoming our citizens," Putin said. "Forever."

From left: Moscow-appointed head of Kherson region Vladimir Saldo and head of Zaporizhzhia region Yevgeny Balitsky, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Denis Pushilin, leader of self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Leonid Pasechnik, leader of self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, at a ceremony at the Kremlin on Friday to sign treaties for the four regions of Ukraine to join Russia. Grigory Sysoyev/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP hide caption

From left: Moscow-appointed head of Kherson region Vladimir Saldo and head of Zaporizhzhia region Yevgeny Balitsky, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Denis Pushilin, leader of self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Leonid Pasechnik, leader of self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, at a ceremony at the Kremlin on Friday to sign treaties for the four regions of Ukraine to join Russia.

Putin was joined by Moscow-backed separatist leaders and Kremlin-appointed officials from the four regions, as senior Russian lawmakers and dignitaries looked on.

Outside the Kremlin, preparations were under way for a rally with banners saying that Russia and the newly integrated territories are "together forever."

People approach screens located near the Kremlin and Red Square before the live broadcast of a ceremony to declare the annexation of the Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in Moscow on Friday. Russian authorities held referendums in the occupied areas of Ukraine that were condemned by Kyiv and governments worldwide. Reuters hide caption

People approach screens located near the Kremlin and Red Square before the live broadcast of a ceremony to declare the annexation of the Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in Moscow on Friday. Russian authorities held referendums in the occupied areas of Ukraine that were condemned by Kyiv and governments worldwide.

The move caps a week that saw the Kremlin choreograph referendums in Russian-occupied territories that purportedly delivered overwhelming majorities in favor of joining Russia.

Ukraine and its Western allies denounced those votes as "shams," in violation of international law.

United Nations chief Antnio Guterres, President Biden and other world leaders have condemned these actions.

"The United States condemns Russia's fraudulent attempt today to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory. Russia is violating international law, trampling on the United Nations Charter, and showing its contempt for peaceful nations everywhere," President Biden said in a statement Friday morning, as his administration announced fresh sanctions on Russia for its annexation of the Ukrainian regions.

"The United States will never, never, never recognize Russia's claims on Ukraine sovereign territory," President Biden said Thursday at the U.S.-Pacific Island Country Summit in Washington. "This so-called referenda was a sham an absolute sham and the results were manufactured in Moscow." The administration announced fresh sanctions on Russia Friday for its annexation of the Ukrainian regions. Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

"The United States will never, never, never recognize Russia's claims on Ukraine sovereign territory," President Biden said Thursday at the U.S.-Pacific Island Country Summit in Washington. "This so-called referenda was a sham an absolute sham and the results were manufactured in Moscow." The administration announced fresh sanctions on Russia Friday for its annexation of the Ukrainian regions.

The sanctions target government officials and leaders, as well as their family members, and officials of the Russian and Belarusian military. As part of the action, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Friday 14 international suppliers for supporting Russia's military supply chains.

"We will hold to account any individual, entity or country that provides political or economic support for Russia's illegal attempts to change the status of Ukrainian territory," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

In this photo released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy leads a meeting National Security and Defense Council meeting in Kyiv. He announced that his country is submitting an "accelerated" application to join the NATO military alliance. Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP hide caption

In this photo released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy leads a meeting National Security and Defense Council meeting in Kyiv. He announced that his country is submitting an "accelerated" application to join the NATO military alliance.

On Friday afternoon, the president told reporters, "America and its allies are not going to be intimidated by Putin and his reckless words and threats."

"He can't seize his neighbors' territory and get away with it," Biden said, noting that the United States would "stay the course" and send more military equipment and resources to Ukraine.

Biden warned the Russian president that "America is fully prepared with our NATO allies to defend every single inch of NATO territory."

In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced he was applying for "accelerated" NATO membership for his country.

In this photo released by Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, back center, leads a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council in Kyiv on Friday. Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP hide caption

In this photo released by Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, back center, leads a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council in Kyiv on Friday.

"De facto, we have already completed our path to NATO," he said. "De facto, we have already proven interoperability with the alliance's standards, they are real for Ukraine real on the battlefield and in all aspects of our interaction. We trust each other, we help each other and we protect each other. This is what the alliance is."

Ukraine has adopted NATO-style conventions within its military, and has grown increasingly dependent on NATO-standard weapons sent by member countries. As he delivered his address, Zelenskyy stood in front of his office in his signature green t-shirt alongside his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and parliament chair Ruslan Stefanchuk. The three signed a declaration for Ukraine's accession into NATO.

"The entire territory of our country will be liberated from this enemy," said Zelenskyy. "Not only Ukraine's enemy, but also an enemy of life itself, humanity, law and truth."

He called for peace negotiations with Russia, but only after Putin is no longer president.

In Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg emphasized the alliance's "commitment to support Ukraine." He called Putin's recent actions "the most serious escalation since the start of the war."

Regarding Ukraine's potential membership, Stoltenberg told reporters that "NATO's door remains open," but said "a decision about membership has to be taken up by all 30 allies. Of course we take these decisions by consensus. Our focus now is on providing immediate support for Ukraine to help Ukraine defend itself against the Russian brutal invasion."

In Washington, President Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters the U.S. continues to believe that NATO should have an open-door policy and said it was up to the 30 allies in NATO to make determinations. But, he added: "Right now, our view is that the best way for us to support Ukraine is through practical, on-the-ground support in Ukraine, and that the process in Brussels should be taken up at a different time."

In this image released by the Ukrainian Police Press Service, the view from a drone shows the site of a Russian rocket attack in Zaporizhzhia on Friday. A Russian strike on the Ukrainian city killed at least 23 people and wounded dozens, an official said Friday, just hours before Moscow planned to annex more of Ukraine in an escalation of the seven-month war. Ukrainian Police Press Office via AP hide caption

In this image released by the Ukrainian Police Press Service, the view from a drone shows the site of a Russian rocket attack in Zaporizhzhia on Friday. A Russian strike on the Ukrainian city killed at least 23 people and wounded dozens, an official said Friday, just hours before Moscow planned to annex more of Ukraine in an escalation of the seven-month war.

At the United Nations, Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning its annexation of Ukrainian territory. The vote was 10-1, and four countries abstained China, India, Brazil and Gabon.

Putin framed the annexation decision as a historical justice following the breakup of the Soviet Union that had left Russian speakers separated from their homeland and the West dictating world affairs according to its own rules.

"The West decides who has a right to self-determination ... who gave them that right?" said Putin.

The Russian leader argued the U.S. was the world's aggressor, leaving a history of destruction and oppression in its wake.

Friday's ceremony echoed Putin's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, following a Kremlin-backed referendum there in 2014 a move that most countries still do not recognize to this day.

Once again, Western powers accused Russia this month of using the guise of staged votes to justify its annexation of Ukraine's territory often at the barrel of a gun.

Indeed, just hours before Friday's ceremony, Putin formally recognized the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as "independent" from Ukraine despite Russian forces controlling only a portion of the territory.

In a reminder of the ongoing fighting, a missile in Zaporizhzhia struck a bus stop and checkpoint, killing 23 and injuring scores. Ukraine blamed the attack on Russia. Moscow's proxies in the area said Ukrainian forces had launched several strikes in the area.

The other two regions Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine's eastern Donbas were recognized as independent by Moscow back in February. At the time, Putin signed a security pact with them, which he then used as justification to send Russian troops into Ukraine days later.

Formal ratification of the territories into the Russian Federation will now move to Russia's parliament and constitutional court whose approval is widely seen as a foregone conclusion.

The Russian government's annexation has unfolded as it works to deploy an additional 300,000 troops to bolster its military campaign amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has retaken territory in the south and northeast of Ukraine.

Western officials have pointed to the timing as evidence of Kremlin desperation to solidify Russian gains before their lines collapse further. Zelenskyy has accused Moscow of seeking to mobilize Ukrainians in annexed areas for the military campaign as well.

Meanwhile, Russian officials have openly warned that the newly incorporated territories would be entitled to protections under Russia's nuclear umbrella.

Julian Hayda contributed to this report from Kyiv.

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Putin illegally annexes territories in Ukraine, in spite of global opposition - NPR