Peskov added that another requirement for this to happen is that “appropriate conditions” exist, as way of comments on statements made by the head of the International Affairs Committee of the State Duma (Lower House of Parliament), Leonid Slutski, who said that the referendums could take place this summer.

“The Kremlin does not make decisions on referendums. We have repeatedly said that people living in these territories must decide their own destiny,” he said.

Regarding the conditions, Peskov told journalists that “when security is not fully guaranteed and we see that the Ukrainian Army and the nationalists continue to attack civilian targets in these territories, of course, under these conditions, it is difficult to talk about voting”.

Slutski commented on Wednesday that the consultations on the incorporation into Russia of the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and the regions of Zaporozhye and Kherson may be held very soon, even in the summer of the current year.

He agreed that the decision to incorporate the territories liberated by Russian forces and Donbass militias should only be made by their population.

On Wednesday, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Central Council of the Zaporozhye Military-Civil Administration, said that the region hopes to become part of the Russian Southern Federal District. Leaders of those other regions had also expressed previously the interest of their inhabitants to be part of Russia.

pgh/llp/mem/mml