By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a mobilization of the country's 2-million-strong military reserve and confirmed his intention to annex those parts of Ukraine currently under Russian occupation.
In a recorded video address, Putin said he "supports" the referenda on joining Russia that will be held on September 23rd - September 27th in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions as well as the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, two puppet states set up by Russia in 2014.
Putin also made a thinly-veiled threat to use the country's nuclear arsenal to defend his conquests in Ukraine, at the same time accusing the West of practicing "nuclear blackmail" against it.
"If Russia’s territorial integrity is threatened we will use all means at its disposal. This is not a bluff," Putin said.