Moscow infuriated the West last month by formally incorporating four regions of Ukraine–Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson–into the Russian Federation.
In the weeks since, it has ramped up its “special military operation” in Ukraine by calling up fresh troops, imposing martial law, and targeting Ukrainian energy facilities.
“The conflict has certainly escalated in recent weeks,” Halil Akinci, who served as Turkey’s ambassador to Russia from 2008 to 2010, told The Epoch Times.
Ukraine’s allies decry what they view as the illegal annexation of territory by Russia, and officials in Kyiv have repeatedly vowed to recover the four lost regions….