The four Ukrainian regions that held referendums on joining Russia will officially be incorporated into the country on Friday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. 

He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be attending a ceremony at the Kremlin where the four regions would formally inducted into the country. 

Voting in the four regions wrapped on Tuesday Peskov told reporters adding that the leaders of the four areas will be present at the Kremlin’s St. George’s Hall to sign treaties with Russia. Meanwhile, Ukraine and the West have denounced the referendums, calling them a sham. 

The four areas combined make up almost 15% of Ukrainian territory. As it stands, the areas are also being run by Moscow-installed administrations who claim that the there has been a majority decision to join the Russian Federation. Government officials in the Zaporizhia region said that 93% of people supported the vote, with similar numbers being reported in Kherson (87%), Luhansk (98%) and Donetsk (99%). The leader of Luhansk, Leonid Pasechnik and the head of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin have reportedly already left for Moscow to formalize the treaty process. 

Ukraine’s foreign ministry has called the elections a “propaganda show” and “null and worthless” saying that forcibly making people fill out papers “at the barrel of a gun” is yet another crime committed by Russia as it continues ‘in the course of aggression  against Ukraine.”

On the other hand, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called on the 27 countries part of the EU to agree to place a new set of sanctions on Russian trade and the country’s officials. She has said that the ballots are are illegal and an attempt to “change international borders by force.”

Last week, Putin announced the partial mobilisation of Russian reservists, the first batch of whom have reached Ukraine, according to a report from the Washington Examiner.