MOSCOW, February 24. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the key motive for the recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics were the feelings and pain of people, who had been living for eight years in awful conditions.
"One cannot look at everything happening there [in Donbass] without compassion, it was just impossible to tolerate all this, it was necessary to immediately stop this nightmare, the genocide against the millions of people living there, who rely on Russia, but on you and me," Putin said in his televised address.
"These aspirations, feelings and pain of people were the main motive for us to take the decisions on recognizing the Donbass people’s republics," the Russian leader stressed.