By Alexander
Smith
Russia will formally annex four regions of Ukraine partially controlled by its military, the Kremlin announced on Thursday, in a major political escalation of the war against its neighboring country.
The decision comes after the Russian-backed authorities organized votes in the occupied eastern and southern regions of Ukraine.
These referendums were widely denounced as a sham to justify land grabs following Russia's recent military setbacks.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russian President Vladimir Putin would attend the accession ceremony of the four regions - Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia - in the Kremlin's St. George Hall on Friday.
"There will also be a big speech by Putin there," revealed Peskov.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry has denounced the vote as an illegal “propaganda show”.
They have seen armed troops escort election officials who went door to door asking people to vote.
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The United States and its Western allies have also pledged not to recognize Russia's claim to the occupied areas.
The State Department announced it will impose further economic sanctions on Russia in response to what spokesman Ned Price called a "land grab" on Wednesday.
"Based on our information, every aspect of this referendum process was pre-arranged and orchestrated by the Kremlin," White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told a separate briefing.
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The hastily arranged vote was announced last week along with Putin's statement that he would call up military reservists to bolster his campaign in ailing Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 21, 2022. Ilya Pitalev / SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images
This caused an exodus of thousands of Russians trying to escape recruitment, with kilometric queues at the border crossings with Georgia and Finland - the latter announced on Thursday that it would close its border to Russian tourists.
Many Western experts see these moves as acts of desperation on the part of Putin, whose military has been placated by a lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive in recent weeks.
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There is also international concern about how the Kremlin might try to defend its newly claimed territory if kyiv tries to take it back.
In a rare national address last week to announce the partial mobilization, Putin vowed that Russia would use all means at its disposal to protect what it sees as its territory - a thinly veiled nuclear threat - and warned: "This is not a
bluff
."
The United States has responded that any use of nuclear weapons by Russia would be met with a "catastrophic" response, without elaborating.