“One of the main objectives of the special military operation is to shelter people living in southeastern Ukraine, in Donbas. Security conditions were provided to citizens in the face of the threat from the Ukrainian Government,” the spokesman said.

On the question about the possibility of new territories, Peskov noted that “it is out of the question, at least we have not made any statements about it. But there is still a lot of work to be done to liberate those regions,” he added.

At the referendums held on September 23-27, residents of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia expressed their willingness to join Russia.

President Vladimir Putin, in his speech at the signing of the September 30 agreements, said that “it is an inalienable right of the people. It is based on the historic unity in the name of which generations of our ancestors won.”

The military operation began on February 24 to achieve the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.

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