CrimeaROSTOV-ON-DON, Mar 22 Crimeans and residents of the LNR and DNR await recognition of the status of the regions by Kiev after the completion of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, said Kirill Stepanov, Deputy Plenipotentiary of the President of the Russian Federation in the Southern Federal District, to RIA Novosti. The people's republics of Donbass and Luhansk are waiting for development,» the agency's interlocutor said. Stepanov noted that «the general course of events unfolding in the neighboring country made it possible to assume with a high degree of probability that everything would end this way.» «This will be an impetus for the resumption of economic relations across the entire spectrum of industries,» he added. Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops. With the support of the Russian Armed Forces, the DPR and LPR groups are developing an offensive, but there is no talk of the occupation of Ukraine, the Russian president emphasized. delay recognition of the peninsula
