MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR, LPR), as well as the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, which joined Russia following referendums, need to be liberated, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Channel One.
In response to a question about the borders of the regions that he was referring to, Lavrov said: "I am certainly talking about their borders as parts of the Russian Federation, based on the Russian Constitution."
When asked if he meant that Russia had yet to liberate those territories, Lavrov answered in the affirmative. "It stems from the people’s will expressed in the four regions. It happened a while ago in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and this fall in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions," Lavrov said.
He also noted that Russia was determined to make sure that its special military operation achieved its goals. The foreign minister added that the four new Russian regions "need to be liberated from the threat of Nazification that they have faced for years."
From September 23 to September 27, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), as well as the Kherson Region and the Zaporozhye Region, held referendums where the majority of voters opted to join Russia. On September 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the heads of the DPR and the LPR, the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions signed treaties on their accession to Russia. On October 4, Putin signed laws ratifying the treaties.