Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sept 29: President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said on Thursday that Moscow will formally annex four Russia-occupied regions of Ukraine at a Kremlin ceremony on Friday.
“Tomorrow in the Georgian Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace at 15:00 (1200 GMT) a signing ceremony will take place on the incorporation of the new territories into Russia,” said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The Russian army has taken control of the Ukrainian districts of Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia after Vladimir Putin ordered troops across the border in February.
In the four regions it controls, Moscow held so-called referendums, and this week, Kremlin-installed officials claimed that the residents supported joining Russia.
The four regional leaders who are backed by Moscow all stated that they were in Moscow and looking forward to meeting President Putin.
The move would be a huge uptick in the conflict and comes eight years after Moscow seized the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine. Russia has been cautioned by the West not to move further with the annexations, with the G7 stating that it would “never acknowledge” the action.
In response, Kyiv has requested additional military assistance.
