Extracts from Putin's speech at annexation ceremony

FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a meeting with the country's Olympic athletes ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games in Moscow, Russia June 30, 2021. Sputnik/Alexei Nikolskyi/Kremlin via REUTERS

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday presided over a ceremony at the Kremlin to annex four Ukrainian regions partly occupied by his forces. Following are extracts from his speech, translated by Reuters:

"I want the Kyiv authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me, so that they remember this. People living in Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are becoming our citizens. Forever. We call on the Kyiv regime to immediately end hostilities, end the war that they unleashed back in 2014 and return to the negotiating table. We are ready for this ... But we will not discuss the choice of the people in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. That has been made. Russia will not betray them."