TASS, April 25. The possible integration of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) with the Russian Federation is a future matter, the decision will be made by the citizens of the LPR through direct expression of their will, LPR Foreign Minister Vladislav Deinego told TASS.
Answering questions about whether there are any plans to integrate the republics with Russia, and what areas of cooperation Deinego would call priority in this sense, he pointed out that the residents of Donbass voiced their plans back in 2014. "I don't think they have changed significantly. But we should proceed from the possibilities and sequence of their implementation. At the present stage, this is the liberation of constitutionally secured territories, the establishment of peaceful life in the liberated settlements. Then, there is restoration of everything that was destroyed during the armed aggression of Ukraine, and at the same time there is assistance to Russia in the implementation of its tasks of denazification and demilitarization of the remaining part of Ukraine," Deinego noted.
"[Plans also include] further establishment of the LPR as a state, work on its international recognition and development of relations with Russia in the framework of the signed treaty on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance," he added. "At the next stages, there will probably be new tasks in terms of integration, but these are tomorrow's issues. The LPR citizens will certainly raise these issues and make decisions about it by direct expression of their will, as it is written in our constitution," Deinego said.