DONETSK, November 18. /TASS/. The plan providing for the "deportation of the Donbass people" developed by the team of incumbent Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky widely publicized in Ukraine came as no surprise to the leadership of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), DPR Head Denis Pushilin said in a statement.

A letter by Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Alexei Danilov addressed to the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, head of the country’s Security Service and the Ukrainian prime minister was earlier published online, the Donetsk News Agency reported. According to the plan outlined in the document, most Donbass residents are not "pro-Ukrainian" and should be held administratively and criminally liable. They should also be transported to Russia or Ukraine’s central and western regions.

"We see nothing fundamentally new in that ‘plan.’ The Kiev authorities have long been cherishing hopes to get rid of us. The war unleashed by Ukraine aimed at exterminating civilians in the Donbass region and destroying critical social infrastructure confirms that. The economic blockade imposed by the Kiev authorities is not conducive to our citizens’ favorable living environment either. Now a plan to deport the people of Donbass has been born in their deformed imagination," Pushilin stated.

Only DPR residents can decide "how and where to live, whom to be friends with and what language to speak," he stressed.

"We have chosen a path home, to the Russian Federation. The republic is on its way towards its cherished goal, building up and strengthening integration processes with Russia, while Kiev’s actions have always been and remain destructive for us," he added.