MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/. Initiatives to hold referendums on the accession of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions to Russia may appear in the near future, and these referendums may take place in the summer, Leonid Slutsky, Chairman of the State Duma’s International Affairs Committee and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), told TASS on Wednesday.
"I do not want to predict, but I can guess that initiatives to hold referendums in those regions may appear very soon, and they may take place, quite possibly, in the summer. And logically, if more or less simultaneously," he said.
The senior lawmaker pointed out that the decision to join Russia should be adopted only by the population of those territories, liberated in the special operation in Ukraine.
"It is no secret that there is such sentiment in Donbass, the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, and they are quite strong," he noted.
Slutsky assured that "the LDPR, like any Russian political force, will go to great lengths to help reconstruct the Donbass republics," as well as other liberated territories.
"In early June we are welcoming a delegation of the DPR People’s Council in Moscow. At the meeting and in the LDPR faction, we will definitely be discussing all those issues," the politician concluded.