Russian President Putin signed a law on changing the time zones in the annexed territories of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions to Moscow time, according to a decree published on Friday on the government’s state portal. CNN.

Vladimir Putin and Dmitry PeskovPhoto: Not provided / WillWest News / Profimedia

Unofficially, the regions already work on Moscow time since the annexation.

According to the adopted law, these four regions are included in the second time zone (Moscow time, UTC + 3), moving from Kyiv time UTC + 2 (one hour less than Moscow time) in winter and UTC + 3 in summer.

In September 2022, Putin announced the annexation of four regions and declared that people living in the occupied regions of “Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions become our citizens. Forever”.

The announcement was made at an assimilation ceremony for the regions, which make up 18 percent of Ukraine’s territory, following illegal referendums in which pro-Russian officials in the controlled territories voted on whether the territories should join Russia.