Russia likely to seize control of eastern Ukrainian region within weeks, U.S. official says

Russians at home and abroad celebrated Russia Day on Sunday under the cloud of Western recriminations over the invasion of Ukraine.

On June 12, 1990, Russian lawmakers officially declared the sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, later renamed the Russian Federation.

According to the Russian Embassy in Britain, Russia Day is “considered to be a holiday of liberty and civic peace.” Monday will be a public holiday across Russia.

“June 12, 1990, marked an important step in fulfilling the aspirations of the people of Russia for freedom, democracy, and the breaking down of barriers that separate them from the rest of the world,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday in a statement.

“On this Russia Day, we recognize the desires of the people of Russia who still seek — as they did in June 1990 — freedom and dignity, often at great personal risk,” he added.

Also marking the day were protests held inside and outside Russia. Protesters laid a mourning wreath in front of the Russian Embassy in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and hung a banner on its gate that read, “The last day of Russia,” Ukrainian state-owned broadcaster Ukrinform reported Sunday.

According to a photograph published by Reuters, antiwar artists in Moscow placed a flag outside the headquarters of the Russian armed forces’ General Staff. “This is not our day,” a slogan on the flag said.

The mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson, said earlier this month on Twitter that he had refused a request from the Russian Embassy to fly the Russian flag at Ottawa City Hall for Russia Day.

Watson added that the Ukrainian flag, which has been flying atop Ottawa City Hall since late February, when Russian forces invaded Ukraine, “will stay up until they leave.”