MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated all Russian citizens on the occasion of the Day of Reunification of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions with Russia.
"A year ago, on September 30, a defining and truly historic event took place when agreements were signed to incorporate four new constituent entities into the Russian Federation," he said in a video address.
He pointed out that "millions of residents of Donbass and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions made their choice to be with their Fatherland." "This conscious, long-awaited, hard-won and genuinely popular decision was made collectively through referendums in full compliance with international norms," the Russian leader noted.
"People showed courage and integrity in the face of attempts to intimidate and deprive them of their right to determine their own future, their destiny, and to take away something every person values, namely, culture, traditions, and mother tongue, in a word, everything that was loathed by nationalists and their Western patrons who orchestrated a coup in Kiev in 2014 and then unleashed a full-scale civil war and terror against dissenters and organized blockades, constant shelling, and punitive actions in Donbass," Putin said.