The leaders of the four separatist regions controlled by Russia in Ukraine were Thursday, September 29 in Moscow to finalize the annexation of these territories after elections described as "
simulacra
" by Kiev and the West.
Officials installed by Moscow in the regions of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, as well as Zaporizhia and Kherson in the south, arrived by plane in Moscow on Wednesday evening, according to Russian news agencies.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: why Russia wants to annex separatist territories
“
I am in Moscow
”, also announced Thursday to the Russian news agency Tas the official installed by Russia at the head of the Lugansk region (east), Leonid Passechnik.
They were to be received soon by Russian President Vladimir Putin to ratify the annexation by Russia.
On Wednesday, the four separatist leaders had already sent him “
official
” requests to this effect.
“
A meeting with the president is of course planned.
I can't say where, what, when.
I don't have this information
,” an official of the Russian occupation administration in Kherson, Kirill Stremoussov, simply said on Thursday.
The process of annexation of the four Russian-held areas in Ukraine has accelerated in recent days, with the hasty organization of '
referendums
' which are called a '
masquerade
' and a '
sham
' by Kiev and its Western backers .
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: why the organization of referendums in the occupied regions is a sham
According to the Russian press agencies, the Parliament in Moscow should vote in the coming days on a text formalizing the annexation.
A speech by Vladimir Putin to deputies and senators should also take place.
In a sign that the Kremlin intends to mark the occasion, festivities were also planned in Moscow on Friday, with the municipality announcing the closure of certain streets in the city center, in particular around the emblematic Red Square, where a stage was being set up .
After an annexation "
referendum
" in 2014 in Crimea, a peninsula in southern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin made a speech with great pomp under the golds of the Kremlin to ask Russian parliamentarians to validate the attachment of this territory to the Russia.
The international community has never recognized this annexation.