MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian parliament will take into account the position of Donetsk and Luhansk in further relations with Ukraine, Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky said Monday.
"Taking advantage of its sovereign right, the people of the southeast [of Ukraine] decided to hold a referendum to express their position. Actually, we were aware of the sentiment in Donetsk and Luhansk, and the preliminary results of the referendums only confirmed it,” Chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Commonwealth of Independent States Leonid Slutsky told reporters.
“We will take into account this position in future relations with Ukraine, sticking to the absolute priority for the present moment – the immediate cessation of bloodshed and prevention of a humanitarian catastrophe,” he added.
He stressed that holding referendums is the sovereign right of all peoples. However, the lawmaker noted that Russian parliamentarians supported the point of view of the Russian president.
Vladimir Putin suggested protesters in eastern Ukraine postpone the referendums and use the help of the international community under the coordination of the OSCE to influence the so-called Kiev authorities to stop the ongoing military operation in the country and began to de-escalate the crisis.
On Sunday, residents in Ukraine’s southeastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions went to the polls in a self-rule referendum, with ballots in Ukrainian and Russian asking whether they supported the acts of state self-determination of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. According to preliminary data, about 90 percent of people in both regions voted for independence.
Russia said in its statement Monday it respected the will of the people in Ukraine’s southeast and urged the regime in Kiev to do the same. The Kremlin said it condemned "the use of force including military hardware against peaceful citizens which led to deaths" during the referendums.
