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Russia’s State Duma 'to take account' of southeast Ukraine referendum results

Chairman of the Committee on Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Ties with Compatriots Leonid Slutsky says “the main task now is to stop bloodshed in Ukraine”

© EPA/IGOR KOVALENKO

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Moscow respects will expressed by population of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine

MOSCOW, May 12. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s State Duma will consider results of referendums in east Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions while it develops relations with Ukraine, said Leonid Slutsky, Chairman of the Committee on Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Ties with Compatriots.

“Holding referendums is a sovereign right of subjects,” but “the main task now is to stop bloodshed in Ukraine,” Slutsky said on Monday.

“We have shared the view of the Russian president, who suggested postponing the referendums and trying to influence the so-called Kiev authorities with the help of the international community and the OSCE (the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) to desist from use of force and start deescalating tension,” he said, noting that Ukraine’s southeast had exercised a sovereign right to express its view.

“We have already known the sentiments in Donetsk and Luhansk confirmed by preliminary results of the referendums. We will take this position into account while developing relations with Ukraine,” Slutsky said, adding that priority would be given to an immediate end to bloodshed and prevention of a humanitarian disaster.

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