Dmitry Peskov said the ceremony will take place on Friday at 3 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET). Putin will deliver a speech and meet with the Russian-backed leaders of the four occupied territories on the sidelines of the ceremony, he added. Separatist leaders from Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics traveled to Moscow after the poll results were announced. The four territories, which together make up about 18% of Ukraine’s territory, recently held Moscow-backed “referendums” on joining Russia. These have been widely condemned by Western leaders as a “fraud”. Signs proclaiming “Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, Kherson – Russia!” and giant video screens have been set up in Red Square, Reuters reported on Thursday. Members of Russia’s lower house of parliament also received invitations to Friday’s ceremony in the Kremlin, state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing a post by Communist Party lawmaker Denis Parfionov on his Telegram channel. A man votes during a referendum in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine, on September 27. (AP) Some context: The “votes” for referendums on Russian membership, being held in the four occupied territories from Friday to Tuesday, are against international law and have been universally dismissed as a “fraud” by Ukraine and Western nations. including US President Joe Biden. Readings reported in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia ranged from 87.05% approval to claims of near-universal verdicts, yet such figures are at odds with reality. According to a CNN poll of Ukrainians in February, shortly before Russia’s invasion, no region of the country had more than one in five people who supported Ukraine’s unification with Russia. CNN’s Jo Shelley contributed reporting to this post.
