Russia-Donbass Reunification Was Long Overdue — Putin

"Now, it has become pretty obvious that this reunification should have happened earlier," the president said

© Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

NOVO-OGARYOVO, November 25. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that now it is clear that the reunification of Russia and Donbass should have happened earlier.

"As far as 2014 is concerned, of course, in hindsight, we know everything now, but we proceeded from the assumption that it might be possible to come to terms, that Lugansk and Donetsk would be able to reunite with Ukraine somehow within the framework of the Minsk agreements. We were sincerely working towards this, but we didn’t fully feel the mood of the people, it was impossible to understand what was happening there," Putin said on Friday at a meeting with the mothers of servicemen participating in the special military operation.

"Now, it has become pretty obvious that this reunification should have happened earlier. Maybe there would not have been so many civilian casualties, and there would not have been so many children killed by bombardments," Putin said.

"It's good that this happened in the end," he pointed out, praising the role of the sons of the women invited to the meeting, "who are now fighting there, on the frontline, on the second line, or on the third line - it doesn't matter - all of them are in the zone of the special military operation."

"I mean all our soldiers, including those who joined the armed forces as a result of mobilization," Putin stressed.