President of Ukraine ready to set federalization issue to referendum with obvious outcome

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko met with students of the Shevchenko National Pedagogical University in Chernigov today, on March 31. Addressing the students and teaching staff, the president said he is ready to set the issue of the country’s federalization and the status of the Russian language to a nation-wide referendum.

“I’m ready to put the issue of a second state language and the federalization to a referendum, and I am sure the Ukrainian people will say a resounding ‘no’," the UNIAN news agency quotes Poroshenko as saying. Before that, it is necessary to approve the basic provisions of the new Constitution of Ukraine at a countrywide referendum, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said.

Today, Leader of the Public Movement “Ukrainian Choice” Victor Medvedchuk said all the citizens of Ukraine, including the residents of Donbass, must participate in the referendum. To that end, he said, “it is necessary to settle the conflict in the east of Ukraine by strictly and consistently fulfilling all the points of the Minsk agreements,” adopt a new law on referendum, and elaborate amendments to the Constitution as soon as possible.