LUHANSK. Jan 18 (Interfax) - The leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), Igor Plotnitsky, said that the LPR has proved itself as an independent state and will never be part of Ukraine again.
"The Luhansk People's Republic has proved itself. Today it is a self-reliant and independent state. If anyone still has any doubts, I declare for everyone to hear: we will never go back to Ukraine. Not for nothing have many lives been sacrificed of our fighters, defenders in the name of the freedom, independence and prosperity of Luhansk land," Plotnitsky said in a statement published on his official site.
"Nationalism, which is now raising its head, including in Ukraine, poses a threat not only to the Russian language, culture, self-identification, but even to the very existence of Russian people," the LPR leader said.
"We set a vector to return to our home, Russia, the Russian world. I already said a number of times that we are going in small steps but we know where we are going," he said.
Crimea's reunification with Russia is "the first and so far only precedent of reunification of the most divided people in the world," the LPR leader said.
"But residents of Donbas, too, expressed their will at a referendum on May 11, 2014, and have been proving their choice with their daily feat of opposing the Ukrainian aggression," Plotnitsky said.
Earlier Verkhovna Rada deputy Nadiya Savchenko said that the only way to resolve the situation in Donbas is non-militarily, over the negotiating table, and by dropping any claims to Crimea.