Representatives of the occupation administrations of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions of Ukraine, as well as the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, will sign agreements with the Russian authorities on the transition of the regions into the country. The ceremony will take place on September 30 in Moscow, told “Interfax” press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov.
“In the Grand Kremlin Palace in the Georgievsky Hall at 15:00, a ceremony of signing agreements on the entry of new territories into the Russian Federation will take place. There will be a voluminous speech by President Putin at this event,” Peskov said.
Earlier, the media reported that Putin could address the parliament on September 30, after summing up the results of referendums in the occupied territories. Then Peskov did not confirm this information. Now he stressed that the ceremony is a “different format.” “The message of the president will take place later, we will inform you in a timely manner,” he promised.
We are talking about signing agreements “with all four territories that held referendums and made a corresponding request to the Russian side,” Peskov said. The President will also talk to the heads of pro-Russian administrations. “Of course, these meetings will take place on the sidelines of this ceremony,” the Kremlin spokesman explained.
At the same time, State Duma deputies and senators of the Federation Council were still invited to the event. Since the beginning of the week, they have been taking PCR tests for coronavirus, said Alexander Yushchenko, secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and Yaroslav Nilov, deputy chairman of the LDPR Duma faction.
On the evening of September 28, a plane with proteges of the Kremlin in the self-proclaimed DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions flew to Moscow. Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the administration of the Kherson region, announced this on his telegram channel.
Earlier, the pro-Russian administrations of the occupied territories of Ukraine reported almost unanimous support for joining Russia. The approval rate in the DPR and LPR was 99%, in Zaporozhye and the Kherson region – 93% and 87%, respectively.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, condemned the “referendums” on annexation. “This is another violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine against the backdrop of systematic violations of human rights,” wrote he.
The UN also announced the vote is illegitimate. “Referendums” in Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine “cannot be called a true expression of the will of the people,” said UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo.
The authorities of Great Britain, Germany, Italy, France, the USA, Canada and Japan strongly condemned the plebiscite. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Washington is not opposed to Kyiv using Western weapons to return the regions where “referendums” were held.
The voting results were also not recognized by Turkey, Serbia and Kazakhstan. The authorities of Belarus have also not yet decided to recognize its results: the head of the country’s Foreign Ministry, Vladimir Makei, said that Minsk would be determined “after studying the situation.”