It’s official: Russia enshrines date of annexing Ukrainian territories as Reunification Day state holiday

Russia will henceforth celebrate the date of its formal annexation of several Ukrainian territories as Reunification Day. President Vladimir Putin has signed the new state holiday into law.

According to official documents, Reunification Day will be celebrated on September 30, marking the annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine by Russia.

An explanatory note appended to the law says that the regions absorbed by Russia had joined it on the basis of their people’s historic commonalities, as a result of self-determination of millions of citizens, who thus exercised their freedom to decide their political status.

A political rally with live music is slated to take place in Moscow’s Red Square on September 29, to mark the anniversary of the annexation.