DONETSK, May 11. /TASS/. This weekend, Donbass residents celebrate the 10th anniversary of the 2014 referendum in which the majority of voters in the then Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine favored self-determination following a coup in Kiev in February 2014.

Residents in a number of regions in eastern and southern Ukraine held protests against the illegitimate regime as they refused to take the course toward de-Russianization and the severing of relations with neighboring Russia in pursuit of NATO membership. Later that month, protesters in the Donetsk Region formed the Supreme Council which proclaimed the region to be a sovereign state on April 7, and the Lugansk Region declared independence, too, on April 27, 2014. The two regions decided to hold referendums on May 11.

The majority of participants in those referendums opted for sovereignty, namely 96.2% of voters in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) and 89.7% of voters in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). To commemorate the vote, a decision was made to set May 11 as DPR Day and May 12 as LPR Day.