Russian President Vladimir Putin will sign treaties annexing four regions of Ukraine tomorrow - effectively forcing them to be part of his nation.
Local media announced the despot will sign accession treaties for parts of the country currently held by the Kremlin's troops at 3pm Moscow time tomorrow (1pm BST).
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a signing ceremony would take place "on agreements on the accession of new territories into the Russian Federation."
Agreements will be signed "with all four territories that held referendums and made corresponding requests to the Russian side," Peskov said.
The votes were cast in the West as illegal and illegitimate. Putin's decision to incorporate the regions into Russia means Moscow will annex vast areas across eastern and southern Ukraine, representing around 15% of Ukraine's total territory.
Russian-backed officials in four regions of Ukraine controlled by Russian forces said referendums showed overwhelming majorities of their populations had voted to join Russia in votes slammed by Ukraine and the West as "shams".
Following the signing ceremonies in the Kremlin, Putin will give a major speech and will meet with Moscow-appointed administrators of the Ukrainian regions, the Kremlin said.
The brazen announcement today came moments before President Recep Tayyip Erdogan planned to call Putin about bringing the crisis to a halt, Turkish media reported.
The leader has previously offered to mediate a meeting between the tyrant and Ukraine's president, but Putin reportedly refused.
Meanwhile, Finland has vowed to close its border to Russian tourists starting tomorrow. However, permission will still be granted for visiting relatives, working and studying.
It comes just over a week after Putin announced a mobilisation of 300,000 civilian reservists following a humiliating defeat at the hands of Kyiv's soldiers.
And Russians have been pictured waiting in snaking queues at the borders of Georgia and Mongolia as they tried to dodge the draft this week.
Images from Maxar Technologies showed thousands of Russian citizens waiting in cargo trucks and cars in gridlock traffic jams meandering behind the frontier lines.
According to the intelligence company - which uses its satellites to track international developments and conflicts - the Georgia queue stretched back more than 10 miles (16km).
The massive traffic jam translated to an estimated two-day wait time on Sunday as more than 3,000 vehicles waited to cross.
An influx of almost 40,000 Russians has already been recorded in Georgia's capital since the start of the invasion in February, according to official documents.
It comes as Kremlin lawmakers weigh up how to manage the mass exodus as they consider closing borders to all military-aged men.
The chaotic scenes have not been seen in the country since World War Two, reports say.
Asked about the prospect of the Kremlin shuttering the border, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "I don't know anything about this. At the moment, no decisions have been taken on this."
