Putin proposes designating September 30 holiday commemorating annexation of Ukrainian territories

Vladimir Putin has proposed designating September 30 a holiday commemorating Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions in 2022. A bill to create the holiday has been submitted to the Russian State Duma.

The official name of the holiday proposed by the Russian president is “Day of the Reunion of the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Luhansk People’s Republic, the Zaporizhzhia region, and the Kherson region to the Russian Federation.”

On September 30, 2022, Vladimir Putin, the leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics,” and the Russian-installed heads of the occupied parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions signed agreements on “joining Russia.” Russia does not fully control any of the four regions.