KIEV: Russian-backed rebels fighting against Kiev announced on Tuesday a plan to create a new “state” they said would take the place of Ukraine and have its capital in their territory.
Ukraine’s pro-Western authorities immediately ridiculed the idea as a Kremlin project that they would never allow to get off the ground.
The separatists said the proposed country would be founded after a referendum and called Malorossiya, a tsarist-era name meaning “Little Russia” that once described most of the area covering modern-day Ukraine.
A constitution presented by rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko said his self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, neighbouring rebel-held Lugansk and …read more
Source: theSun
