Russia to formally take over 4 Ukrainian regions into its territory
New Delhi: Russia will on Friday formally annex four regions of Ukraine it currently occupies following referendums in those areas in September, the Kremlin said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a signing ceremony in the Kremlin on Friday to add the territories of Ukraine into Russia, his spokesman said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a signing ceremony would take place at 3 pm local time on Friday “on agreements on the accession of new territories into the Russian Federation”.
Agreements will be signed “with all four territories that held referendums and made corresponding requests to the Russian side”, Peskov said.
Putin’s decision to incorporate the regions into Russia means Moscow will annex vast areas across eastern and southern Ukraine, representing around 15 percent of Ukraine’s total territory.
The areas to be annexed are in the occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions – roughly the size of Portugal.
Prior to this, Russia had seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and declared it a part of Russia in 2014.
Russian-backed officials in four regions of Ukraine said referendums showed an overwhelming majority of their populations had voted to join Russia in votes slammed by Ukraine and the West as “shams”.
Putin will also give a major speech on Friday following the signing ceremony in the Kremlin and will meet with Moscow-appointed administrators of the Ukrainian regions, the Kremlin said.
The ceremony is part of a process in which Peskov said Putin would separately address the Russian parliament at a later stage.
A celebratory concert on Red Square is planned for Friday evening. Peskov said the media would be informed later whether Putin would attend.
(Vinayak)
