Breaking news and news from Russia’s war in Ukraine on September 30

Russia is expected to begin formally annexing four occupied Ukrainian territories on Friday Russia will begin formally annexing up to 18% of Ukrainian territory on Friday, with President Vladimir Putin expected to host a Kremlin ceremony to declare four occupied Ukrainian territories as part of Russia. The ceremony will take place on Friday at 3 pm local time (8 am ET) in the Kremlin’s St. George’s hall, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Putin will make a speech and meet with Russian-backed leaders of the four occupied regions on the sidelines of the ceremony, he added. The announcements come after people in four occupied areas of Ukraine reportedly voted in large numbers to join Russia, in five-day elections that were illegal under international law and dismissed as a sham by Kyiv and the West. The so-called referendums were organized by Russian-backed separatists in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic in the eastern Donbas region, where fighting has erupted since rebels took control of parts of Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014. The other two areas where so-called referendums were held were Kherson and Zaporizhia in southern Ukraine. Russia has occupied the two regions since shortly after it invaded the country in late February. On Thursday, Putin signed decrees recognizing the two regions as independent. If Russia proceeded to annex the territories, it would violate “everything that the international community should stand for,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “Any decision to proceed with the annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions of Ukraine would have no legal value and deserve to be condemned,” Guterres said. “It is a dangerous climb. It has no place in the modern world. It should not be accepted.” Meanwhile, the European Union on Wednesday proposed additional sanctions in retaliation for Moscow’s annexation plan, targeting “those involved in Russia’s occupation and illegal annexation of areas of Ukraine,” including “Russian deputy authorities in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson and Zaporizhia and other Russian individuals who organized and facilitated the fake referendums in these four occupied territories of Ukraine”.