Russia declared that part of Ukraine that Russia doesn't even fully occupy was part of Russia. It's ridiculous. And to illustrate how much of a complete farce the "referendum" was, there was a news story in Russia that purported to show the glorious vote counting with overwhelming approval. It featured a vote counter showing each ballot and saying "da" for each. If you looked closely, the ballots didn't even have markings. They don't respect your intelligence enough to fake an election properly.