DONETSK, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic may decide in the next few hours whether to remain part of Ukraine or secede from the country, DPR Co-Chairman Denis Pushilin said Monday.
According to final official reports, 89.7 percent of the voters in the referendum that took place in the region on Sunday backed independence for Donetsk, while 10.19 percent voted against the measure.
"It could all be decided very soon, maybe in the next few hours," Pushilin told reporters.
He also said the region would not participate in the Ukrainian presidential on May 25, following a statement by the Southeastern Army Press Secretary Vasiliy Nikitin that the Luhansk People’s Republic was also not planning to participate in the vote.
On Sunday, residents in Ukraine’s southeastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions went to the polls in a self-rule referendum, with ballots in Ukrainian and Russian asking whether voters supported the acts of state self-determination of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
In Donetsk Region, more than 70 percent of registered voters came to cast their ballots despite an intensified military operation by the Kiev government.
At least 50 people have died and 245 have been injured in Ukraine’s southeastern Donetsk region since the beginning of a violent standoff between federalists and pro-regime forces on March 13, officials said Monday.
In the Luhansk region, voter turnout was over 79 percent, with the turnout in the regional capital exceeding 76 percent. Nikitin said earlier that more than 96 percent of voters backed the region’s independence from Ukraine and did not rule out the possibility of a referendum on joining Russia.
The Luhansk People’s Republic may campaign for international recognition at the United Nations, he added.
The Kremlin said in a statement Monday it respected the will of the people in Ukraine’s southeast and urged the regime in Kiev to do the same. The Kremlin said it condemned “the use of force including military hardware against peaceful citizens which led to deaths” during the referendums.
