Russian-backed rebels fighting against Kiev have announced 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 insurgents’ 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 said rebel bastion Donetsk would become the capital, while Kiev would be reduced to the status of a “historical and cultural centre”.
The surprise proposal is likely to draw scorn from Ukraine’s pro-Western authorities in Kiev, who have been locked in a conflict with the Moscow-supported rebels since 2014 that has cost the lives of some 10,000 people.