Kyiv

At least 30 people were killed and 88 wounded after a Russian missile struck a civilian convoy in Zaporizhzhia city of Ukraine on Friday.

"The enemy launched a rocket attack on a civilian humanitarian convoy on the way out of Zaporizhzhia," Oleksandr Starukh, head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, wrote on social media.

The people killed in the strike include an 11-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy, media reports quoted the head of Ukraine's National Police, Ihor Klymenko.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday formally announced the annexation of four regions - Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and claimed that "this is the will of millions of people."

As per the media reports, Putin said the residents in the four annexed regions will now be Russia's "citizens forever".

"There are four new regions of Russia," Putin said in a lengthy speech declaring the annexation of Ukrainian territories in the St George's Hall at a Kremlin ceremony. The speech was filled with highly critical rhetoric about Ukraine and its Western allies.

While denying seeking revival of the Soviet Union by the said annexation, Putin accused Western states - which have imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

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Moreover, in a strong statement, Putin also added that Russia would now defend its new territory "with all the means at its disposal."