Factbox-Russia's annexation plan in Ukraine: what happens now?

FILE PHOTO: Head of the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin, Chairman of the Committee of Russia's State Duma on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications Aleksandr Khinshtein and Secretary of the United Russia Party's General Council Andrey Turchak attend a news conference on preliminary results of a referendum on the joining of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) to Russia, in Donetsk, Ukraine September 27, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

LONDON (Reuters) - Pro-Russian officials in four partially Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine declared that voters had chosen to join Russia, in hastily organised referendums which the West said were illegal - what happens now?

President Vladimir Putin has said he will never abandon the residents of these areas. Ukraine says Russia is a criminal state stealing its sovereign territory.