The leaders of the "Luhansk People's Republic" on Wednesday asked Alyaksandr Lukashenka and the chairmen of Belarus' both parliamentary chambers to recognize it as an independent state.
In their appeal, the pro-Moscow separatists, who had declared the secession of the Luhansk province from Ukraine, expressed a high opinion of Belarus' efforts as a "guarantor of peace and security." "Since the establishment of the Luhansk People's Republic our citizens have had firm intentions to build an independent state and consistent aspirations to share the fate of the Republic of Belarus," said the appeal.
Similar appeals were also sent to Armenia, China, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, Russia, Serbia, Syria, Venezuela, Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniestria, and Russia's republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia in North Caucasus.
The "Luhansk People's Republic" and the "Donetsk People's Republic" in the adjacent Donetsk province were created as a result of controversial self-rule referendums held by armed pro-Russian militants on May 11.
The Ukrainian government described the self-proclaimed republics as terrorist organizations.
Speaking in an interview with an independent Russian TV channel in May, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said that the referendums were illegal and bore no significance from a legal viewpoint.
