Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will hold talks with officials from the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics of eastern Ukraine later on Friday in Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees on Monday to recognize two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine as independent statelets, before ordering a special military operation in Ukraine.
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Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions – collectively known as the Donbass – broke away from Ukrainian government control in 2014 and proclaimed themselves independent “people’s republics.”
The Russian-backed separatist leader of Donetsk said on Wednesday that Ukrainian government forces should withdraw from territory that his self-proclaimed state lays claim to and take their weapons with them.
TASS cited Denis Pushilin, head of the “Donetsk People’s Republic”, as telling Russian state media that such a scenario would be the optimal one.
The separatists lay claim to a much larger swath of territory in Ukraine than they currently control.
Pushilin had earlier said on Wednesday he wanted to peacefully settle the border issue with Ukraine via talks but reserved the right to ask “big Russia” for help.
Russia's recognition of the self-proclaimed statelets on Monday was declared illegal by Western countries, which have imposed new sanctions against Moscow.
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