Separatists fighting against Kiev announced on Tuesday the creation of a new “state” that they said would take the place of Ukraine and have its capital in their territory.
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 representatives from the separatists’ self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk “People’s Republics” and other regions had agreed to “declare the establishment of a new state, which is the successor of Ukraine.”
The document — released by the separatists’ news agency — said rebel bastion Donetsk would become the capital, while Kiev would be reduced to the status of a “historical and cultural centre”.
Source: AFP
