"We will be trying to establish relations with the unrecognized states. [We] have already sent an envoy to Abkhazia and [South] Ossetia has already recognized us. Abkhazia is just a matter of time. A greater ambition is Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela," Zakharchenko told journalists.
Abkhazia and another breakaway Georgian province, South Ossetia, were recognized by Russia as independent states in August 2008 following a five-day war with Georgia.
In Late November 2014, the Chairman of the South Ossetia Parliament, Anatoly Bibilov, said that the decision to recognize the independence of Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics (LPR and DPR) was adopted unanimously and Tskhinvali is preparing an agreement on cooperation for both breakaway republics.
After refusing to recognize the legitimacy of a new government in Kiev that came to power following the February 2014 regime change in the Ukraine, southeastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk held referendums on self-determination and declared themselves independent states.
Soon after, the self-proclaimed republics started to create their own governments and law enforcement agencies and formed the union of Novorossiya.
Kiev did not recognize DPR and LPR as sovereign states and launched a military operation in April 2014 to suppress independence supporters in the region.