“I ask you, as soon as possible, in the event of a positive decision in the referendum – which we have no doubt about – to consider the DPR becoming a part of Russia,” said Denis Pushilin, who leads the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, in a social media post addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian leaders have made it clear that they are taking the results of these referendums extremely seriously.
“Encroachment onto Russian territory is a crime which allows you to use all the forces of self–defense,” said former former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev who is now deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council.
“This is why these referendums are so feared in Kyiv and the West,” he added. “They would completely change the vector of Russia’s development for decades. And not just of our country. The geopolitical transformation of the world would be irreversible once the new territories were incorporated into Russia.”