Putin meets leaders of four regions to agree on joining Russia

The Russian presidency, “The Kremlin,” announced Thursday that President Vladimir Putin will attend a ceremony to annex 4 Ukrainian regions to Russia, Friday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a press conference in Moscow that President Putin will meet in Moscow with leaders of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, and sign agreements with them on joining Russia.

Peskov noted that the signing will be followed by an official ceremony in the Kremlin at 15:00 (12:00 GMT).

On Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that more than 98% of participants in the referendums in the four regions voted to join Russia.

On the same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the referendums on joining Russia as “nonsense and cannot be called a referendum”.

“Any criminal act by Russia won’t change anything for Ukraine,” Zelensky said.

The international community condemned the Russian referendums, with European countries and the United States describing them as “bogus”, saying they “wouldn’t recognize them”.

Since February 24, Russia has launched a military attack in its neighbor Ukraine, prompting capitals, led by Washington, to impose severe economic sanctions on Moscow.

For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Thursday that the collapse of the Soviet Union was behind the conflicts in countries that were among its republics, including Ukraine.

“It is enough to look at what is currently happening between Russia and Ukraine and what is happening at the borders of other countries within the Commonwealth of Independent States,” Putin said during a televised meeting with heads of intelligence services of former Soviet countries.

All of this, of course, is the result of the collapse of the Soviet Union”.

For his part, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Thursday that Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian regions “has no place in the modern world”.

“Any decision to implement the process of annexing the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia will have no legal value and deserve condemnation… It is a dangerous escalation,” Guterres said.

This has no place in the modern world and shouldn’t be accepted”.

He added that annexation “contradicts everything the international community is supposed to represent… It makes a mockery of the goals and principles of the United Nations”.

“Any Russian decision to go in this direction will further threaten the prospects for peace, prolong the tragic effects on the global economy, especially on developing countries, and impede our ability to deliver emergency aid to Ukraine and beyond,” he added.

“It is time to step back from the abyss,” Guterres stressed.

The United States and Albania are preparing a resolution condemning the “referendums” in Ukraine, which the West has described as a “farce”.

The text will first be submitted to the UN Security Council, where Russia will undoubtedly veto it before it is later presented to the General Assembly and its 193 members.

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to formalize on Friday Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions, despite denunciations from Kyiv and its Western allies, and has threatened to defend the breakaway Ukrainian regions even with nuclear weapons.