DONETSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th May, 2021) Delegations from Russia, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia arrived on Tuesday in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) for the the latter's Independence Day celebrations, the press service of the administration of DPR head Denis Pushilin reported on Tuesday.
"The head of the DPR Denis Pushilin held a reception of foreign delegations that arrived to participate in the festive events on the occasion of the Republic Day," the press service said in a statement.
Russia is represented by the upper chamber's First Deputy Speaker Andrei Turchak and South Ossetia by President Anatoly Bibilov.
The head of the neighboring self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), Leonid Pasechnik, was also in attendance.
The ongoing conflict in southeastern Ukraine, where Kiev launched a special military operation against the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics in 2014, has killed thousands of people. The Normandy Four format, which includes Russia, France, Germany, and Ukraine, was established in June 2014 to mediate the conflict after the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, known together as Donbas, proclaimed independence following what they considered to be a coup in Kiev in February of that year. Despite several agreements reached under the Normandy format, the conflict in Donbas continues.
The DPR celebrates Independence Day on May 11, and the LPR on May 12.
