Moscow-Sana
The President of the Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin asked the President of the Lugansk People's Republic Leonid Pasechnik to jointly prepare and coordinate in order to hold a referendum in the two republics to immediately join the Russian Federation.
According to Sputnik agency, Pushilin suggested to Pasechnik that the efforts of the administrations in the two republics and the People's Councils be unified in order to develop steps to start preparations for the referendum.
Pushilin noted that after receiving an appeal from the Social Chamber of the Donetsk People's Republic, he instructed the country's institutions to jointly study the issue of holding a referendum.
Earlier today, the head of the Social Chamber of the Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Kaufman, announced that the Chamber had applied to Pushilin to immediately organize a popular poll to join Russia and said: “It is time to erase the non-existent border between our two states ... and to hold a referendum on the question of the Donetsk Republic's accession to the Russian Federation, so that the borders of the Russian Federation extend between us and Ukraine.”
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the launch of a special military operation to protect the Donbass region from the crimes of the Ukrainian regime and its Nazi battalions.