Vladimir Putin will formalize the annexation of four Ukrainian regions
Russian President Vladimir Putin has planned to ratify, Friday, midday, the annexation by Russia of four Ukrainian regions occupied totally or partly by its armed forces. Officials installed by Moscow in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions were already in the Russian capital on Thursday, according to local media.
The Kremlin is to host a ceremony for these annexations at 3 p.m. local time (2 p.m. in Paris) during which Mr. Putin must pronounce “a voluminous speech”according to his spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The Russian capital braced for festivities, with traffic restricted on Friday, including a concert in the shadow of the Kremlin walls at which Mr Putin could make an appearance. As a prelude to this formalization, Mr. Putin signed several decrees recognizing the independence of the Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhia and Kherson.
“I order to recognize state sovereignty and independence” of these two regions of southern Ukraine, he said in these texts published Thursday evening.
Russia recognized the independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and the Lugansk People’s Republic (LNR) in February, at the request of their pro-Russian separatist leaders, shortly before the start of its offensive in Ukraine launched on 24 february.
These four regions will be officially annexed by Russia, after “referendums” organized at the end of September on their attachment to Russia. Consultations carried out under the supervision of armed men, described as “parody” and of “simulacra” by kyiv and its Western backers. Russia already annexed Crimea, a peninsula in southern Ukraine, in 2014.
kyiv’s military successes in early September forced Mr. Putin to hastily organize these “referendums” of annexation and to mobilize hundreds of thousands of Russians into the army, a measure which drove crowds towards an exodus from Russia.