Vladimir Putin will attend a signing ceremony on Friday to officially annex four more regions of Ukraine, following self-proclaimed referendums that Ukraine and the West have branded as fraudulent.
Previously, officials sponsored by Russia asserted that the five-day drill had nearly 100% popular backing.
In the east, so-called elections were held in Luhansk and Donetsk, and in the south, in Zaporizhia and Kherson.
The Russian president will deliver a significant address in the Kremlin.
The Red Square in Moscow has already been set up with a stage and placards announcing the four regions to be part of Russia. There were parallels to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, which likewise followed a flawed referendum and was preceded by a staged victory speech by the president.
However, there was no independent supervision of the process, and there were reports of election workers being accompanied by the armed military as they went door to the house.
As a result of the referendums, the United States has stated that it will impose sanctions on Russia, while EU member states are preparing the eighth round of penalties.
Thursday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stated that people in seized regions of Ukraine had been forcibly removed from their homes and places of employment. “This is the antithesis of democratic elections. And this is the opposite of peace; it is a peace that has been imposed “She stated,
