Vladimir Putin has signed a law on celebrating the day of annexation of four regions of Ukraine in 2022. Earlier the document was adopted by both chambers of parliament. The holiday will be celebrated on September 30, it will be a day off in Russia, the document says.
According to the law, the new day off is called “Day of reunification of the Donetsk people’s Republic, Lugansk people’s Republic, Zaporizhzhya region and Kherson region with the Russian Federation”. It follows from the document that the first day off will already be on September 30 this year, but it falls on Saturday.
Moscow announced the annexation of Ukrainian regions in the fall of 2022. It justified it by the results of voting in the territories occupied by Russian troops, which Moscow called referendums. Ukraine and most countries of the world consider the voting to be fictitious, it was held in violation of international norms and Ukrainian legislation. Kyiv has repeatedly said that it will never recognize the results of the voting and the decision on the annexation.
Russian laws and the 2022 vote show that Moscow claims the full territories of the four regions within their administrative boundaries and part of Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region. Most of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions and a large part of the Donetsk region are not controlled by Moscow.
The Kremlin press service was unable to explain to journalists in 2022 exactly within what borders the new subjects are included in the country.
