Russian President Vladimir Putin will claim to annex four regions of Ukraine on Friday, the biggest territorial takeover in postwar Europe following referendums widely considered to be rigged.
A “grand ascension” ceremony at the Georgievsky Hall of the Great Kremlin Palace will see Russia claim political control over 15% of Ukraine, the continent’s largest country.
Moscow will then celebrate the acquisition of the four regions — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — with a pop concert on the city’s iconic Red Square.
The United States, Ukraine and others have condemned this as an illegal land-grab, promising to retaliate with sanctions.
“All options remain on the table when it comes to imposing costs on Russia,” deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told a briefing Thursday.
Western governments, officials and experts have openly regretted not responding with tougher measures when Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014.
Today, Russia says it’s merely answering a democratic decision by people living in eastern and southern Ukraine — a claim few in the West take seriously. Instead, the move is seen by many experts as a wider escalation by Putin after a series of punishing battlefield defeats at the hands of a lightning counteroffensive by Kyiv.
As well as announcing the annexation, Putin has called up military reservists — prompting a mass exodus of Russians fleeing the draft — and ramped up his nuclear threats against Ukraine and the West.
In an address on the eve of the ascension ceremony Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to Russians directly.
The annexation “can still be stopped,” Zelenskyy said. “But to stop it we have to stop that person in Russia who wants war more than life — your lives, citizens of Russia.”
President Joe Biden says he will never recognize the results, which he said Thursday were “a sham, an absolute sham.” While Antonio Guterres, director-general of the United Nations, called it a “dangerous escalation” and a violation of the U.N. charter.
The ascension ceremony is due to start at 3 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET), with Putin scheduled to give a speech and meet the four pro-Russia leaders of the annexed regions. It is not clear whether he will attend the pop concert, as he did after Crimea’s annexation.
A stage has been set up with giant video screens and billboards proclaiming the four areas part of Russia.
But underscoring the disconnect between Friday’s ceremonials and the ongoing chaos and bloodshed of the war, hours beforehand a missile attack on a convoy of cars in Ukrainian-held Zaporizhzhia city killed at least 23 people, local officials said.
It was also clear that annexation does not mean control. Russian troops in the strategic town of Lyman are on the verge of being encircled by Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, and other observers.
Rob Lee, a respected military analyst chronicling the conflict, tweeted Thursday that the Lyman “pocket” could collapse at any time, which would “overshadow the annexation announcement.”
Reuters contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
