A year has passed since the day that residents of Donbass, who shortly before had declared the establishment of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), held referendums on self-determination.
Almost 90% of those who took part in the poll then voted for the independence of the new state formations. Kiev seemed to have been given a clear signal that it is necessary to organize a dialogue with the Russian-speaking regions and hold deep constitutional reforms. But the politicians did not want to listen to the position of the east Ukrainian residents.
The Russian side made an attempt to reconcile Kiev and Donbass. On May 7, 2014 Moscow held talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the OSCE chief Didier Burkhalter. According to their results, Putin called on Kiev to "immediately stop the military operation in the South-East of Ukraine," as well as asked supporters of federalization to move a referendum on May 11 to a later date to create the conditions for dialogue.
The secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Parubiy, on May 8 promised that the military operation would continue, regardless of the decision the people of Donbass would take in a referendum.
On May 11, 2014, following the proclamation of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in April 2014, the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine saw a vote in which people were asked one question: "Do you support the Act of State Independence of the Donetsk (Lugansk) People’s Republic?"
The referendum took place in conditions of a continuing military operation by the Ukrainian army against the region. Still, the vote was held with an unprecedentedly high turnout: 71% in the Donetsk Region and 81% in the Lugansk Region. And most of those who came to vote supported the idea of state independence of the DPR and LPR. In the DPR, 89.7% of those who cast their ballots (2,511,441 people) answered positively. In the LPR, where 1.6 million voted, 96.2% gave positive answers.
The leaders of the self-proclaimed republics believe that in the year following the referendums they were able to achieve the maximum. They plan to celebrate this day as a special date. The representatives of all the cities of the Donetsk Region will march along Donetsk's central street. It is planned that the parade will be attended by about 30 thousand people.
