Vladimir Putin is expected to deliver a national address later, his first since ordering his troops into Ukraine in February.
There had been speculation in the Russian media that he would speak to the Russians on Tuesday evening, but that did not happen and no reason was given.
It comes after separatist leaders in four Russian-occupied regions in eastern Ukraine announced plans to hold referendums on joining Russia later this week.
Putin is expected to defend the move, which would pave the way for the formal annexation of swaths of territory after nearly seven months of war.
The self-proclaimed Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk People’s Republics (LPR), which Putin recognized as independent states just before the February 24 invasion, have said they will hold referendums starting this Friday and continuing until Tuesday.
The regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which have not yet been recognized as independent states by Russia, have also said they will hold their own votes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation clearly showed that his country had the initiative in the conflict, adding that “noisy news from Russia” will not change Ukraine’s position.
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0:20 “Referendums are an act of desperation for the Russians”
The White House said the United States would reject plans to hold referendums, while Ukraine dismissed the move as a ploy by Moscow to try to regain the initiative after crushing battlefield losses.
And French President Emmanuel Macron said the referendums will not be recognized by the international community.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg tweeted: “Mock referendums have no legitimacy and do not change the nature of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. This is yet another escalation in Putin’s war. The international community must condemn this flagrant violation of international law and increase support for Ukraine.”
Moscow does not fully control any of the four regions, with only about 60% of the Donetsk region in Russian hands, but if it goes ahead with referendums and joins the four Russia, Ukraine, and potentially its Western supporters would, from a Russian perspective, be fighting against Russia itself.
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Image: The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has promised that Ukraine would recover all its territory
That would raise the risk of a direct military confrontation between Russia and the NATO military alliance, a scenario that US President Joe Biden has said could lead to World War III, because members of the ‘NATO are supplying weapons and giving information to Ukraine.
Commentators have agreed that the move could increase Moscow’s confrontation with the West, as it comes after recent territorial gains by Ukrainian forces pushed Russian troops back.
The world has been waiting as Putin pondered his next steps after the bruising contractions.
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2:23 What is Russia’s next military step?
Ukraine said the threat of referendums was “naive blackmail” and a sign that Russia was scared.
“This is what fear of defeat looks like. The enemy is scared and primitively obfuscating,” said Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak.
Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who is now vice-chairman of its Security Council, suggested that the outcome of any referendum would be irreversible.
The territory that Russia currently controls in Ukraine totals more than 90,000 square km, or about 15% of the country’s total area, equal to the size of Hungary or Portugal.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. With Crimea and the territory in the other four regions, Russia would gain an area of about 120,000 square km, roughly the same size as the US state of Pennsylvania. England has about 130,000 km².