• The Kremlin announced plans Thursday to hold a ceremony on Friday to annex portions of Ukraine following a referendum in which residents of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia allegedly voted overwhelmingly in support of joining Russia.
• Moscow claimed the voter turnout in the annexation referendum was as high as 97.5% in some areas of the occupied Ukrainian regions and that over 96% of residents there voted in support of becoming part of Russia.

Tagged: World War III