Zelensky convenes his National Security and Defense Council to respond to the annexation announced by Russia

The Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, has convened the National Security and Defense Council for this Friday, from which new announcements could come out coinciding with Russia's decision to join four occupied regions of eastern Ukraine.

Zelenski's spokesman for the press, Sergei Nikiforov, has confirmed the call in a Facebook message in which he has anticipated that the agenda of the meeting of the Ukrainian security leadership will soon be made public.

The meeting will coincide with a ceremony Friday the Kremlin is scheduled to host for Russian President Vladimir Putin to firm up the annexation of separatist rebel-controlled republics in Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as Jershon and Zaporiyia, taken after the February invasion . . . .

The Ukrainian president has undertaken in recent days an intense round of diplomatic contacts in search of support in the face of the referendums organized by the pro-Russian authorities in these four regions, whose legitimacy is questioned by both kyiv and Western governments, including the European Union.

The annexation, as occurred in 2014 with the Crimean peninsula, implies for Moscow to legitimize the occupation and that it moves on to definitively consider under its sovereignty the territories it already controls 'de facto' in Donetsk, Lugansk, Jershon and Zaporiyia.