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Poroshenko rules out Ukraine's federalization

The upcoming decentralization in Ukraine will not concern such spheres as national defense, national security, foreign policy, fight against corruption and territorial integrity

© Mikhail Palinchak/TASS

KIEV, June 4. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko confirmed on Thursday that he would never agree to the country’s federalization.

"Decentralization has nothing in common with federalization. Ukraine will, is and will be a unitary state," Poroshenko told the parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.

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The upcoming decentralization in Ukraine will not concern such spheres as national defense, national security, foreign policy, fight against corruption and territorial integrity, he said.

Poroshenko expressed hope that the constitutional commission will soon complete amendments on decentralization. He called on the lawmakers to send them to the Constitutional Court so that they could be approved already this autumn.

"That’s why decentralization may become a reality already after the autumn elections of local authorities and local self-government," he said.

The constitutional reform in Ukraine aimed at decentralization is one of the measures as part of the February 12 Minsk agreements brokered after the 16-hour marathon talks of the Normandy Quartet - Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine.

Kiev authorities have repeatedly rejected a possibility of Ukraine’s federalization, which has been the key demand of residents of the country’s eastern regions.

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Ukraine’s security sphere will be unified in line with NATO standards — Poroshenko

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Ukraine crisis Pyotr Poroshenko

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