Does Russia intend to accept more Ukrainian territory? Kremlin explicitly responds to Peskov | Putin | Ukraine
According to TASS on August 6th, Russian President's press secretary Peskov said in an interview with The New York Times that Russia only wants to control all of its territory stipulated by the Russian constitution.
"No," Peskov said in response to the reporter's question about whether Russia intends to accept more Ukrainian territory, "we just want to control all of our territory currently defined by our constitution."
The report mentioned that from September 23 to 27, 2022, a nationwide referendum was held in the Donetsk People's Republic, Luhansk People's Republic, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, and Kherson Oblast on the issue of integration into Russia. The majority of residents in these areas voted in favor of this approach. On September 30 of the same year, Russian President Putin signed a treaty with the leaders of the four aforementioned regions regarding their integration into the Russian Federation. On October 4th, Putin signed a law and ratified the treaty.