In the evening of 21 February 2022, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin signed two Treaties of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance with the President of the Donsetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, and the President of the Lugansk People’s Republic, Leonid Pasechnik.

A telltale sign that the ceremony was organized in haste is the fact that the Kremlin did not have the flags of the two People’s Republics, which the Russian Federation was the first to recognize.