President Vladimir Putin is going to formally annex four regions of occupied Ukraine with Russia on Friday. The Kremlin said Putin would sign the official documents of the verdict at an official ceremony on this day. However, Kyiv and its Western allies have already rejected the move, calling it illegal and unnecessary.
A ceremony for the incorporation of Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia into Russia will take place at 3 pm (12:00 GMT) Moscow local time.
After the referendums that ended on Tuesday in all four regions, it was expected that Putin could take these steps anytime. Moscow-backed local officials claimed that the people of the area had voted overwhelmingly in favor of joining Russia.
Seven months after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this referendum has been hurriedly held. However, Ukraine rejected the referendum as a sham.
The Kremlin said Putin would deliver a speech after the signing ceremony. According to a report by Al Jazeera, Russian-backed leaders from Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia reached the capital, Moscow, ahead of the ceremony.
“A big public celebration is being prepared in Moscow’s Red Square,” Wall said.
“Russia is talking about this as a reform of history. It is saying that injustice has been done to those areas and to Russia,” he said.
He added, “Moscow also says that it will take every measure to be used to protect them after annexation. In the last few weeks it has also talked about the use of nuclear weapons.”
These four localities represent about 15 percent of Ukraine’s territory. Annexation is not a new Russian strategy.
Eight years earlier, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine, following a widely condemned referendum. To date, none of Ukraine’s allies have recognized Crimea as a territory of Russia.
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