Moscow: Asking whether Russia won or lost in Ukraine conflict is now pointless—because it is doubtful any wars will ever come to a clear conclusion.
It is like the non-stop war happening in George Orwell's novel '1984' between Oceana, Eastasia and Eurasia; people in these fictitious states largely don't know who won and who lost after each bout of conflict.
But Russian authorities are using every which way to claim they have won but in fact they haven't, or rather they are facing reversals in many places of Ukraine they previously occupied.
The latest of their claims, aside from the usual doses of military communique, is people in occupied areas of Ukraine expressing their willingness to join Russian Federation.
Moscow-backed separatist leaders issued formal appeals to people to join the Russian Federation on Wednesday.
This came just hours after a series of referendums that claimed large number of chose to join Russia.
Ukraine has condemned these referendums, happening with ballots cast at gunpoint, as violation of international law.
But pro-Russian separatist Denis Pushilin, living in Donetsk, praised 99.23% of votes in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic backing to join Russia.
Alongside pro-Russian officials in the occupied territories of Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia reported that from 87% to 98% of residents had voted in favor of joining Russia.
Things are happening in line with the 2014 referendum in Crimean Peninsula that led to Russia annexing the region from Ukraine.
US media reported that Russian separatist leaders were on their way to Moscow for consultations.
It is not yet clear when Russia will formally initiate annexation process.
One report said that several senior Russian lawmakers wanted formal legislative sessions for annexation to wait until next week. Meanwhile Russia could strengthen its faltering military defences in Ukraine.