MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/. The people’s choice in the referendums in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and in the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions is their undeniable right as stipulated by the UN Charter, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday at the ceremony of accession of the four new regions to Russia.
"I am convinced that the Federal Assembly will support the constitutional laws on admitting and incorporating four new regions in Russia, four new subjects of the Russian Federation, since it is the will of millions of people. And certainly, it is their right, their inviolable right that is enshrined in Article 1 of the UN Charter, which explicitly states the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples," Putin said.
The Russian president pointed out that "it is an inviolable human right based on historical unity, in the name of which victories have been won by generations of our ancestors, who founded and defended Russia over the centuries since the origins of Ancient Rus."
"In Novorossiya, Rumyantsev, Suvorov and Ushakov (prominent military commanders in Russian history - TASS) fought and [Empress of Russia] Catherine II and [Prince Grigory] Potemkin founded new cities, and here our grandfathers and great-grandfathers stood to the bitter end during the Great Patriotic War (the 1941-1945 war fought by the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany - TASS)," the Russian president pointed out.
Putin addressed the citizens of Russia, the citizens of the newly integrated regions and the audience, recalling that the results of the referendums had been summed up and the results were known.
"The people have made their choice, an unambiguous choice," he emphasized.
"Today we are signing the treaties on accession of the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic, the Zaporozhye Region and the Kherson Region to Russia," he concluded.