MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/. The DPR, LPR and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions have the right for self-determination under the UN charter and Moscow will treat their choice with respect, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the Newsweek magazine.
"As for other Ukrainian territories liberated from the yoke of the neo-Nazi Kiev regime you mentioned, we proceed from the premise that their inhabitants have the right to independently determine their own destiny. We see the desire of people to be together with Russia, and therefore we shall treat their choice with respect. The corresponding intentions have been voiced recently by the leaders of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. All of them are entitled to use the right to self-determination in accordance with the UN Charter," the minister said.
Lavrov said the first state to recognize the independence of the DPR and the LPR was not Russia, but South Ossetia. "And after Russia, Abkhazia, Syria and North Korea also did this. Russia recognized the independence of the Donbass republics within the borders specified in their constitutions — in fact, that means the administrative borders of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of the former Ukrainian SSR," he said.
The authorities of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, as well as the administrations of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, decided to hold referendums on joining Russia as constituents of the federation. Voting in all these territories will be held from September 23 to 27.