Meduza: Kremlin to hold back on illegal annexation of Ukrainian territories after sham referendums

Independent Russian media outlet Meduza reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that the illegal annexation of occupied territories in four Ukrainian regions will be postponed as at the moment it will not have the desired "PR effect" on the Russian population, which has been dissatisfied with the mobilization. Russia will also postpone the ban on leaving the country for men of draft age, according to Meduza.
 
One of Meduza's sources said that the Kremlin may postpone the announcement of annexation to leave a gap for negotiations with Kyiv.

Ukraine earlier said it would not hold peace talks with Russia if it holds sham referendums in the occupied territories.

Following Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's announcement of mobilization on Sept. 21, protests sparked across the country. As of Sept., 26, over 260,000 Russian men had fled the country.

Russian media earlier reported that Moscow would announce the annexation on Sept. 30.

On Sept. 28, Russia declared a 98% secession support rate in illegal referendums held at gunpoint in the occupied territories in Ukraine.

Moscow is expected to use these "results" as a pretext to illegally annex parts of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, as it did with Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014.