Russia is expected to annex four occupied regions of Ukraine in a lavish Kremlin ceremony on Friday after President Vladimir Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons in their defense.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the annexations would be formalized at the ceremony and Putin would make a “big” speech.
It comes after foreign leaders critical of Russia expressed their opposition to the plan, with US President Joe Biden saying the United States would “never, never, never” recognize Russian sovereignty over the territories.
The Kremlin’s nuclear threats have not deterred a full-scale Ukrainian counteroffensive pushing back Russian troops in the east.
Kiev’s forces are on the doorstep of the Donetsk region town of Lyman, which was battered by Moscow’s forces for weeks before it was taken this summer.
Putin has blamed the West for the war in Ukraine and said simmering conflicts in the former Soviet Union were the result of its collapse.
The rhetoric built on his now-famous phrase that the fall of the USSR was a tragedy, and he recently suggested that Moscow should re-extend its influence in the former Soviet region.
The Kremlin-appointed leaders of the four regions who have petitioned Putin for annexation this week gathered ahead of the ceremony in the Russian capital.
Their near-simultaneous motions came after they claimed residents unanimously backed the move in hastily organized referendums that Kyiv and the West dismissed as illegal, fraudulent and void.
– 20 percent of Ukraine –
Ukraine said the only appropriate response from the West is to hit Russia with more sanctions and provide Ukrainian forces with more weapons to continue retaking territory.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the annexation plans as “a dangerous escalation” that “has no place in the modern world”.
The UN Security Council will vote on a resolution condemning the referendums on Friday, according to France, the current president of the council, but he has no chance due to Moscow’s veto power.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called an “urgent” meeting of his National Security Council for Friday, his spokesman said after the Kremlin announced the timing of the annexation ceremony.
The four oblasts — Kherson and Zaporizhia to the south, and Donetsk and Lugansk to the east — form a crucial land corridor between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
All five together make up about 20 percent of Ukraine, whose forces have been pushed back in recent weeks.
Ukrainian troops have advanced in the eastern Kharkiv region and recaptured areas in Donetsk. Military observers say Kiev’s troops are on the verge of capturing Lyman.
Moscow’s forces are striking back along the entire front line, and officials in Kyiv said on Thursday Russian bombings killed three people in the Dnipropetrovsk region, five in Donetsk region and seven in the Kharkiv region.
Along with the threat to use nuclear weapons, Putin announced a mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Russians to strengthen Moscow’s army in Ukraine, prompting demonstrations and an exodus of men abroad.
Putin on Thursday called for errors in the draft to be “corrected” as dissatisfaction with the often chaotic conscription surge grows.
