LUGANSK, May 12. /TASS/. Foreign Ministers of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) and South Ossetia, Vladislav Deinego and Dmitry Medoyev, signed an agreement on establishing diplomatic relations between the two republics, LuganskInformCenter reported on Sunday.

The document lays a legal framework for the relations between the LPR and South Ossetia making it possible to build closer relations.

"The Republic of South Ossetia was the first to react to our call for the LPR’s recognition and today, on the LPR’s fifth anniversary, our friends from South Ossetia made one more present - the launch of diplomatic relations," Deinego said after the signing ceremony.

"This step will help expand our bilateral relations and make them closer," Medoyev noted.

Earlier in the day, LPR’s head, Leonid Pasechnik, and South Ossetian President Anatoly Bibilov exchanged ratification papers to the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance signed by the two republics in Tskhinval in December 2018.