Ukrainian authorities said today that the military will continue its counteroffensive against Russia in the east of the country, after Moscow officially annexed four Ukrainian regions and asked Kyiv's army to stop fighting.

"By attempting to annex the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson, Putin is trying to seize territories that he does not control on the ground. Nothing changes for Ukraine: we continue with the liberation of our country and our people, with the return of our territorial integrity", announced the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba on social networks.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin announced that the Russian president Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin he still has no plans to visit the four Ukrainian regions that he officially annexed today, his spokesman told Russian news agencies.

"Not yet, there is a lot of work to be done, but over time it will certainly happen," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to a journalist's question.