SIMFEROPOL, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – Crimea is ready to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk regions, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Crimea Vladimir Konstantinov said Wednesday.
"For our part, we, as their compatriots, will support the people [of Luhansk and Donetsk regions] and provide any assistance at the humanitarian level that will be necessary to protect the people from shortage of food and other daily necessities," Konstantinov said.
Residents of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions were forced to hold independence referendums because Ukraine “turned into an aggressive establishment not willing to carry on a dialogue with its people,” he said.
“Today the regional initiative to convene referendums is a means of survival for these regions,” the politician said, underlining that Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics have to go through the complicated process of legitimation.
The Donetsk and Luhansk regions declared independence from Ukraine based on the results of referendums held on Sunday. The decision was immediately declared illegal by the interim authorities in Kiev. The self-proclaimed republics have now begun establishing governments.
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.
Crimea and Sevastopol, which has a special status within the region, became subjects of the Russian Federation on March 21 following the referendums.
