Russia plots annexation of 15,000 square miles near Ukraine

Russian lawmakers are plotting the annexation of the Sea of Azov, a shallow body of water which is shared territory between Ukraine and Russia per a two-decade-old treaty.

Lawmakers are set to approve a bill on the recognition of the Sea of Azov as an internal Russian body of water by the end of 2023, Mikhail Sheremet, a member of Russia's State Duma (parliament's lower chamber) told Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

Such a move would likely set "conditions to coerce recognition of Russia's illegal annexation of occupied Crimea and Kherson, Zaporizhia, and Donetsk," the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank, said in its latest analysis of the conflict on Tuesday.