The objective to liberate the entire territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) within its 2014 borders is still in force, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, TASS reports.
"The least I can say with an absolute clarity is that you all know well that not the whole territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic has been liberated. We are speaking here about the territory within its 2014 borders," he told journalists.
"This is why we should at least liberate the whole territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic," Peskov said in response to a question on whether the previously set objectives of the Russian special operation should be viewed as accomplished in case new territories join Russia.
The Russian presidential spokesman reiterated that the entire territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) had been already liberated.
"You will be certainly provided with a detailed response in time, in case such documents [on the territories' joining Russia] are signed," he added.
The referendums on joining Russia kicked off in the Donetsk and the Lugansk People’s Republics and in the liberated areas of the Kherson and the Zaporozhye Regions at 08:00 a.m. Moscow Time on September 23 and continued until September 27. The majority of local residents in the regions at the issue cast their votes in favor of joining Russia.
