Now the Road to Moscow: Completing the Regions' Integration into Russia

The self-proclaimed leader of the Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, has received a report from the Central Election Commission regarding the results of the referendum on joining Russia. With this report, he is set to sign an 'agreement with the President of Russia,' as reported by the Donetsk News Agency.

The results of the referendum will also see the self-proclaimed head of the Luhansk People's Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, and leaders of pro-Russian administrations in Ukraine's occupied Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, Yevgeny Balitsky and Vladimir Saldo, visiting the capital.

'The document is in hand, the report (on the referendum voting) is in hand, now there's a road to Moscow. I'm going right now,' Denis Pushilin told reporters.

He also promised that the entire territory of the DPR will be 'liberated within constitutional borders.' 'Now we are entering a new phase of military operations,' Pushilin added without providing further details.

The voting on the question of joining Russia concluded the day before, on September 27, in territories of Ukraine's Kherson and Zaporizhia regions under the control of the Russian army, as well as in the territories of the DPR and LPR.

In the DPR, 99.23% of referendum participants voted in favor of joining Russia, in the LPR it was 98%, in Kherson it was 87%, and in Zaporizhia it reached 93%.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that if Russia recognizes these results, he has 'nothing to discuss' with Vladimir Putin.