MOSCOW, April 07. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry has stressed the essentiality of a realistic constitutional reform in Ukraine. A statement it issued on Monday said: “It is scarcely possible to hope for a durable stabilization in Ukraine without a genuine constitutional reform that would ensure the interests of all regions of the country trough federalization, guarantee its nonaligned status, and stipulate a special role of the Russian language.”
“Russia is watching closely the developments unfolding in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine and, in particular in the Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkov regions,” the statement said.
Russia reaffirms its offer of international assistance to the start of a genuine national dialogue of all the political and regional forces in Ukraine and it states its preparedness to taking part in the appropriate efforts together with its foreign partners, the ministry said.
“We are prepared to take part in appropriate efforts together with our foreign partners including foreign ministers of the countries that authenticated the February 21 agreement on settling the political crisis in Ukraine,” the statement said.
The ministry warned, however, that the future has new upheavals in store for Ukraine if the authorities in Kiev continue treating the destiny of the people without a speck of responsibility.
“If the political forces calling themselves state power continue treating the destiny of the country and the people irresponsibly, Ukraine will obviously face ever more new impasses and crises then,” the statement says. “It is high time for them to stop making nods towards Russia and apportioning all the blames for Ukraine’s misfortunes to it.”
“The people of Ukraine certainly want to hear unambiguous answers to all the questions from those at the helm of power in Kiev,” the Foreign Ministry said.
“It is high time the Ukrainian authorities heeded those demands,” the document said.
The ministry issued its statement in the wake of an increasingly knotty situation in the eastern regions of Ukraine.
Monday afternoon, deputies of the Donetsk regional council proclaimed formation of an independent and sovereign Donetsk People’s Republic.
An Act on State Sovereignty of the Donetsk People’s Republic was read out Monday at a session of the regional council, which transformed itself into a Council of the Republic.
The Donetsk republic “will build its relations in line with international law and on the basis of equality and mutual benefits,” the document says.
“The territory of the republic within the recognized borders is indivisible and inviolable,” the council said.
The legislators also passed a decision on holding a referendum on whether or not the region should get incorporated in the Russian Federation. It will be held May 11 at the latest.
On this background, residents of Donetsk, held an action of protest in front of the building of the Regional State Administration. The gathering was chanting ‘Russia, Russia!’ and waving the Russian flags.
Sunday, April 6, crowds of protesters seized various official buildings in the cities of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk, the administrative centers of the three crucial heavily industrialized regions of the country.
On Monday, supporters of turning the country into a federation put up barricades in front of the entrance to the Kharkiv region administration. They used automobile tires among other ‘construction materials’.
In Luhansk, unknown people who had entrenched themselves in the building of the Security Service’s regional branch seized the room where service guns were kept.