Ukraine’s first president supports autonomy of Donbass republics

The first president of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, unexpectedly expressed a completely "seditious" idea for a modern Ukraine: he did not rule out that autonomy status can be granted to the Donbass republics accompanied by their own laws and internal rules.

Appearing on ZIK TV, the ex-president admitted that the population of the republics will not want to return to Ukraine under its current state structure, and therefore they need "to be offered something new."

"It needs not just our desire, but new forms. Let’s say, tomorrow Donbass returns to us. Tell me, please, those people who live there, do they want to be in this state - the regional organization, the state structure, as before? No. I have friends who give me information every day - what is in schools there, what kind of books, poems, what's in notebooks. There is nothing Ukrainian, and this is forming since childhood. We have to offer something else," PolitNavigator quotes Kravchuk as saying.

At the same time, he made a reservation that the federation can only be for the whole of Ukraine, and not only for Donbass, but at the same time he added that autonomization can take place.

"I'm not afraid of autonomy if the autonomy is built on high principles. For example, one of them is the constitution of Ukraine. An autonomous republic or region will have its own constitution. If we write in the constitution of Ukraine that any regional unit can raise the issue of secession from Ukraine, then all Ukraine must vote for this. For example, Donetsk wants an independent status. Lviv votes, then Transcarpathia, all the regions. How they vote, so it will be. If to put the issue this way, everything will look different. The armed forces, defense, security and international relations remain for the center - Kiev. Everything else - do as you please," the former president said.