LUGANSK, August 9. /TASS/. A referendum in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) on its accession to Russia may be organized only after the complete liberation of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), LPR’s leader Leonid Pasechnik said on Tuesday.

"Our ultimate goal is to push the enemy to a safe distance, to help our brothers liberate the DPR. And only after that we will think about a possible referendum, although we expressed our view back in 2014," he said.

Pasechnik said earlier that the republic was looking at organizing a referendum on accessing to Russia. On July 15, the LPR passed a decision to set up a public headquarters of the referendum.

Following a dramatic deterioration of the situation in Donbass on February 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 21 announced a decision to recognize the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics within the boundaries of the administrative borders of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, as is committed to paper in their constitutions. The treaties of friendship, cooperation and mutual aid were signed with their leaders. On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aimed to demilitarize and denazify the country. The republics began an operation to liberate their territories controlled by Kiev.