Sham referendums: Putin plans to announce annexation of Ukrainian territories on Friday
mock referendums
Putin plans to announce annexation of Ukrainian territories on Friday
Russian President Putin wants to make the annexation of several Ukrainian territories official on Friday. photo
© Uncredited/Russian Presidential Press Service/AP/dpa
After sham referendums, Russia wants to annex four occupied Ukrainian territories in violation of international law. This is not recognized internationally. Kremlin boss Putin still wants to announce the move.
After the international law violations mock referendums Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to make the annexation of several Ukrainian territories official this Friday. “A ceremony to sign agreements on the accession of new territories to the Russian Federation will be held at 3:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. CEST) in the Grand Kremlin Palace,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, according to the Interfax agency. Peskov also confirmed an appearance by Putin.
Neither the staged votes in the east and south of Ukraine nor the annexation of the occupied territories. In 2014, Moscow had already annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. Together with Crimea, almost 20 percent of Ukrainian territory is under Russian control.
Chief of the crews want to come to the ceremony
According to Peskov, the four heads of the occupation administrations deployed by Moscow should also travel to the ceremony. At the same time, the Kremlin spokesman emphasized that this is not yet a speech Putin’s act before the Federal Assembly – i.e. the two chambers of the Russian Parliament. This should take place later. The two chambers have already announced that they will decide on the annexations on Monday and Tuesday.
Around seven months after the start of the war of aggression, Moscow held mock referendums on membership in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as well as in Cherson and Zaporizhia in the south until last Tuesday Russia hold off. Accordingly, the Russian occupiers spoke of an allegedly overwhelming approval of sometimes even more than 99 percent. It was already expected that the occupation administrations would then officially apply to Putin for admission to Russian territory – and thus an unprecedented wave of annexations would begin.
The mock referendums are not recognized worldwide because they are held in violation of Ukrainian and international laws and without minimum democratic standards. In the past few days, observers had pointed out numerous cases in which the Ukrainian residents of the occupied territories were forced to vote.
