Ukraine’s People’s Republics Rule Out Political Union With Kiev: Reports

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Ukraine's southeastern regions could cooperate with Kiev in the spheres of security and economy, but a political union is out of the question, Andrei Purgin, Deputy Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) said in an interview with Russian Channel One on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, September 30 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine's southeastern regions could cooperate with Kiev in the spheres of security and economy, but a political union is out of the question, Andrei Purgin, Deputy Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) said in an interview with Russian Channel One on Tuesday.

"Federalism could not be discussed…Economic relations are possible, partly security…But [the republics] do not see a political union," Purgin said, adding that this position is shared by an overwhelming majority of people in Ukraine's southeastern regions.

After local residents voted for the independence of the people's republics at the referendums held in May and lost thousands of lives in the armed conflict with Ukrainian forces, they cannot imagine a life under the power of the Kiev authorities, Purgin said.

A violent internal conflict erupted in Ukraine in mid-April, when Kiev launched a military operation against independence supporters in the southeastern regions of the country, who refused to recognize the new Ukrainian government which came to power as a result of the February coup.

The status of Ukraine's southeastern regions remains a matter of debate. Kiev says it is ready to offer special status only to areas controlled by independence supporters, while the authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics (DPR and LPR) claim they want full independence and will not agree to any status that regards them as a part of Ukraine.

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