Russian-backed rebels fighting against Kiev announced on Tuesday the creation of a new "state" that they said would take the place of Ukraine and have its capital in their territory.

The proposed country - which has no chance of getting off the ground - would be founded after a referendum and called Malorossiya, a tsarist-era name meaning "Little Russia" that once described most of the area covering modern-day Ukraine.

A constitution presented by rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko said representatives from the insurgents' self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk "People's Republics" and other regions had agreed to "declare the establishment of a new state, which is the successor of Ukraine."</s>In 1667, the Treaty of Andrusovo affirmed Russian sovereignty over historic Russian lands that had been part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth since the 14th century. These areas were de-facto Russian ever since the Treaty of Pereyaslav, signed in 1654 as an alliance between local Cossacks and the government in Moscow.

The restoration of Russian lands was affirmed in the 1686 Treaty of Perpetual Peace.

These regions became known as Malorossiya (Little Russian) and formed the triumvirate of the Three Russias under a single sovereign (Great Russia, Little Russia and White Russia). The lands of Malorossiya on the left-bank of the river Dnieper were later incorporated into further territorial gains from Poland-Lithuania on the right-bank of the river Dnieper in 1793.

In the 1764, former Ottoman regions around the Black Sea including the cities of Odessa and Donetsk formed Novorossiya or New Russia. The former Ottoman Khanate of Crimea formally linked up with this region in 1783.

The current borders of Ukraine were manufactured haphazardly under Bolshevik rule which effectively slammed together the historic regions of Novorossiya and Malorossiya with western regions bordering former Polish lands that had been subsumed by Austro-Hungarian rule in the late-modern period. Areas that were part of the Second Polish Republic between the world wars, including Galicia and the Czech and Hungarian regions of Carpathian Ruthenia, were incorporated into The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic after 1945.

This odd mix of historic regions with different identities is the primary reasons that a conflict in the modern borders of Ukraine were simply a matter of “when” rather than “if”.

This reality has been acknowledged by Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic who today announced the intent of Donetsk to lead a restoration of Malorossiya as part of a drive to reincorporate historic Russian territories into a close relationship with The Russian Federation.

Donetsk People’s Republic Income and Charges Minister Alexander Timofeev added the following,

He further stated that Malorossiya would develop a constitution based on discussions throughout the regions including in the new/revived area and would ultimately require approval via a democratic referendum.

When discussing the model of Belarus in respect of its relations with Moscow, Timofeev is alluding to the Union-State between Belarus and Russia which was created in 1996. This has allowed for open borders and common economic and military interests between Minsk and Moscow.

Zakharchenko affirmed that the new state might need to live under emergency conditions for three years due to aggression from remnants of the regime currently ruling in Kiev.

In spite of these difficulties Zakharchenko also struck an optimistic tone, encouraging people to dream big. He stated,

“All of us here are going to talk about the future. We propose a plan for the reintegration of the country through the law and the Constitution. We must build a new country in which the concepts of conscience and honour are not forgotten. We offer the citizens of Ukraine a peaceful way out of the difficult situation, without war. This is our last offer not only to the Ukrainians, but also to all countries that supported the civil war in Donbass. I am convinced that we will do everything possible and impossible”.

Representatives at the meeting where the announcement was made were drawn from historic Malorossiya and Novorossiya regions including Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Kherson, Nikolayev, Odessa, Sumy, Poltava, Chernigov, Kirovograd.

The leader of the regime in Kiev, Petro Poroshenko responded to Zakharchenko’s statement saying that Kiev would reconquer both Donbass and the Russian territory of the Crimean peninsula. Both of these statements speak to just how out of touch Poroshenko is with the realities on the ground.

Although the organisational phases of creating Malorossiya will be difficult due to the position of the Kiev regime and almost certainly the European Union also, the idea underlines something The Duran discussed in November of 2016,

Historic regions of different cultural, linguistic and sovereign backgrounds cannot be slammed together into an artificial state for an eternity. History shows that such states are typically dissolved or radically reformed after a certain period of uncomfortable pseudo-coexistence.

The impending collapse of the regime in Kiev and the longer term re-defining of the borders of the state now called Ukraine will have to be addressed sooner or later. The proposals which came out of Donetsk today are as good a beginning on the road to much needed change as any.</s>DONETSK (Sputnik) — Self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Leader Alexander Zakharchenko proposed on Tuesday a three-year transition period toward a new state called Malorossiya ("Little Russia") as a way to settle the three-year conflict.

"We propose to establish the state of Malorossiya. Malorossiya is an independent young state. A transition period of up to 3 years," Zakharchenko told reporters.

Noting that discussions within the DPR had "come to the conclusion that Ukraine has shown itself as a failed state," he called on the international community to support his proposal.

"We should be supported by the residents of the regions. This solution is possible provided that the international community supports the idea," Zakharchenko said.

Malorossiya has been declared as a sovereign federation of states with wide-ranging autonomy, with the capital of Donetsk and successor state to Ukraine. The new state's constitution will be approved after a referendum and broad discussion. The country's central authorities will be in charge of the federal budget, army and security services, according to DPR Income and Charges Minister Alexander Timofeev.

"We, the representatives of former Ukraine, declare the establishment of a new state, Malorossiya, which is a successor state to Ukraine. We agree that the new state's name will be Malorossiya because the very name of Ukraine has discredited itself. The city of Donetsk becomes Malorossiya's capital," Timofeev said while reading a constitution act on the formation of the new country.

Malorossiya's constitution will state its non-aligned status and policy toward restoring ties with Russia, he added. The new country will seek to join the union state of Russia and Belarus while keeping its sovereignty.

"Malorossiya is a multinational state with Russian and Malorossiyan being its official languages, and regional languages retaining their rights and statuses," Timofeev read.

He noted that in Malorossiya, religions will have equal rights. The state aims at resuming activities within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and launching trilateral talks with Russia and the European Union.

"The policy aimed at joining the Union State of Russia and Belarus while preserving independence and sovereignty. The keeping of a visa-free regime in agreement with the European Union. De-oligarchisation, uncluding on a legal basis," the minister read out.

Ukraine Military Shells Civilian Infrastructure in Donbass as War Crimes Rage On The Donbass conflict erupted in April 2014 as a local counter-reaction to the West-sponsored Maidan coup in Kiev that had toppled President Viktor Yanukovych in February. Residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions held independence referendums and proclaimed the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Kiev has since been conducting a military operation, encountering stiff local resistance.

In February 2015, Kiev forces and Donbass independence supporters signed a peace agreement in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in Donbass, as well as constitutional reforms that would give a special status to the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Despite the agreement brokered by the Normandy Four states (Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine), the ceasefire regime is regularly violated, with both sides accusing each other of multiple breaches, undermining the terms of the accord.

"The constitution of Malorossiya will be drafted, approved in its initial iteration by the constitutional assembly and then submitted for the nationwide referendum. This will follow the wide public discussion both on the regional and the federal levels," Timofeev pointed out.

Zakharchenko suggested declaring a state of emergency in Malorossiya for three years due to "economic difficulties, possible chaos and a possible war of all against all", and during these three years order shall be restored and the constitution shall be adopted.</s>MOSCOW -- Separatists in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday proclaimed a new state that aspires to include not only the areas they control but also the rest of the country. But Russia, their chief backer, sought to downplay the announcement, saying it was merely part of public discussion.

The announcement from the rebel stronghold of Donetsk casts further doubt on the 2015 cease-fire deal that was supposed to stop fighting in Ukraine's industrial heartland and bring those areas back into Kiev's fold while granting them wide autonomy. Some rebels said they have no intention of joining the new state.

More than 10,000 people have died in fighting since Russia-backed rebels took control of parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions in April 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. The rebels originally sought to join Russia, but the Kremlin stopped short of annexing the area or publicizing its military support for the rebels.

Donetsk separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko said in comments broadcast on Russian television that rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as representatives of other Ukrainian regions, would form a state called Malorossiya.

Most of the areas that are currently part of Ukraine were referred to as Malorossiya, or Little Russia, when they were part of the pre-1917 Russian Empire.

Zakharchenko said they are drawing up a constitution that would be put to a popular vote.

"We believe that the Ukrainian state as it was cannot be restored," Zakharchenko said in remarks carried by the Tass news agency. "We, representatives of the regions of the former Ukraine, excluding Crimea, proclaim the creation of a new state which is a successor to Ukraine."

Although separatists in the east have some sympathizers in other Ukrainian regions, they have not attempted to capture territory, nor do they have any political representation.

France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia worked out an agreement in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, in 2015 that laid out a road map for ending the conflict between government troops and separatists. Under the deal, the rebels would return control of the territories they had captured to Kiev while Kiev would allow a local election and grant autonomy to the region.

While the deal helped to reduce the intensity of fighting, none of the political components has been implemented.

Breaking several hours of silence that passed after the separatists' announcement Tuesday, Boris Gryzlov, Russia's envoy mediating the peace talks in Minsk, dismissed the idea as public discussion.

"This initiative does not fit with the Minsk process," Gryzlov told Russian news agencies. "I see it merely as an invitation for discussion. This announcement does not ... entail any legal consequences."

Asked about the rebels' announcement, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters Tuesday evening that the Kremlin had no comment.

While the separatists are believed to be guided by the Kremlin, they have made statements in the past that clearly caught Moscow off-guard.

Yevgen Marchuk, Ukraine's envoy at the talks, said on the 112 television channel that the announcement, made a day before the next round of talks in Minsk, "could block the negotiations entirely."

In Luhansk, rebel leaders denied that they were part of the deal. Luhansk Information Center, a local news website, quoted rebel representative Vladimir Degtyarenko as saying they had not been informed of the plans and have "great doubts about the expediency of such a step."

Throughout the conflict, the rebel-controlled areas have been ruled by self-proclaimed authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk who call themselves the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic. Separatist leaders in Luhansk, unlike their counterparts in Donetsk, have tended to stay away from directly expressing intentions to join Russia.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday accused Russia of directing the rebels' hand in making the announcement and seeking to split Ukraine in pieces.

"You should understand that Zakharchenko and [rebel leader Igor] Plotnitsky are not political actors," he said, dismissing them as "puppets" whose only job is to voice "the messages they receive from Russia."

Poroshenko said Ukraine is committed to the peace accords and pledged to restore control over eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

Kiev-based political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko speculated that the Kremlin had instigated the announcement, perhaps trying to scare the West with the possibility of Ukraine's breakup.

"The Kremlin is no longer trying to push this malignant tumor back into the body of Ukraine," Fesenko said, adding that it is too early to predict the fallout of Tuesday's announcement because Zakharchenko is known for making outlandish claims.

The Associated Press has documented how Moscow has been propping up the separatists in Ukraine with funds, weapons and recruits. The Kremlin has firmly denied sending Russian troops to fight.

Information for this article was contributed by Yuras Karmanau of The Associated Press.</s>MOSCOW (AP) — Separatists in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday proclaimed a new state that aspires to include not only the areas they control but also the rest of Ukraine.

The surprise announcement in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk casts further doubt on the 2015 cease-fire deal that was supposed to stop fighting in Ukraine’s industrial heartland and bring those areas back into Kiev’s fold while granting them wide autonomy. It also caught unawares some rebels who said they have no intention of joining the new state.

More than 10,000 people have died in fighting since Russia-backed rebels took control of parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions in April 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. The rebels originally sought to join Russia but the Kremlin stopped short of annexing the area or publicizing its military support for the rebels.

Donetsk separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko said in comments broadcast on Russian television that rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk as well as representatives of other Ukrainian regions would form a state called Malorossiya.

Most of the areas which are currently part of Ukraine were referred to as Malorossiya, or Little Russia, when they were part of the Russian Empire.

Zakharchenko said they are drawing up a constitution that would be put up to a popular vote later.

“We believe that the Ukrainian state as it was cannot be restored,” Zakharchenko said in remarks carried by the Tass news agency. “We, representatives of the regions of the former Ukraine, excluding Crimea, proclaim the creation of a new state which is a successor to Ukraine.”

Although separatists in the east do have sympathizers in other Ukrainian regions, they have not attempted to capture territories there, nor do they have any political representation there.

Separatist leaders in Luhansk, however, later denied that they were part of the deal.

Local news website Luhansk Information Center quoted rebel representative Vladimir Degtyarenko as saying they had not been informed of the plans and have “great doubts about the expediency of such a step.”

Throughout the conflict, the rebel-controlled areas have been ruled by self-proclaimed authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk who call themselves the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic. Separatist leaders in Luhansk, unlike their counterparts in Donetsk, have tended to stay away from directly expressing intentions to join Russia.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday accused Russia of directing the rebels’ hand in making the announcement and seeking to split Ukraine in pieces.

“You should understand that Zakharchenko and (rebel leader) Plotnitsky are not political actors,” he said, dismissing them as “puppets” whose only job is to voice “the messages they receive from Russia.”

Poroshenko said Ukraine is committed to the peace accords and pledged to restore control over eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia worked out an agreement in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, in 2015 which laid out a roadmap for ending the conflict between government troops and separatists. Under the deal, the rebels and the Ukrainian government agreed that the rebels would return the control of the territories they had captured to Kiev while Kiev would allow a local election there and grant wide autonomy to the region. While the deal helped to reduce the intensity of fighting, none of the political components has been implemented.

The Luhansk rebels insisted on Tuesday that they were committed to Minsk while Donetsk representatives argued that the creation of a new state does not contradict the deal.

Yevgen Marchuk, Ukraine’s envoy at peace talks with the rebels, said on the 112 television channel that the announcement, made one day before the next round of talks in Minsk, “could block the negotiations entirely.”

Kiev-based political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko speculated that the Kremlin had instigated the announcement, perhaps trying to scare the West with a possibility of Ukraine’s breakup.

“The Kremlin is no longer trying to push this malignant tumor back into the body of Ukraine,” Fesenko said, adding that it is too early to predict the fallout of Tuesday’s announcement because Zakharchenko is known for making outlandish claims.

There was no immediate comment from Russia, which has been supporting the rebels. The Associated Press has documented how Moscow has been propping up the separatists in Ukraine with funds, weapons and recruits. The Kremlin has firmly denied sending Russian troops to fight alongside the separatists despite the overwhelming evidence.</s>In 1667, the Treaty of Andrusovo affirmed Russian sovereignty over historic Russian lands that had been part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth since the 14th century. These areas were de-facto Russian ever since the Treaty of Pereyaslav, signed in 1654 as an alliance between local Cossacks and the government in Moscow.The restoration of Russian lands was affirmed in the 1686 Treaty of Perpetual Peace.These regions became known as Malorossiya (Little Russian) and formed the triumvirate of the Three Russias under a single sovereign (Great Russia, Little Russia and White Russia). The lands of Malorossiya on the left-bank of the river Dnieper were later incorporated into further territorial gains from Poland-Lithuania on the right-bank of the river Dnieper in 1793.In the 1764, former Ottoman regions around the Black Sea including the cities of Odessa and Donetsk formed Novorossiya or New Russia. The former Ottoman Khanate of Crimea formally linked up with this region in 1783.The current borders of Ukraine were manufactured haphazardly under Bolshevik rule which effectively slammed together the historic regions of Novorossiya and Malorossiya with western regions bordering former Polish lands that had been subsumed by Austro-Hungarian rule in the late-modern period. Areas that were part of the Second Polish Republic between the world wars, including Galicia and the Czech and Hungarian regions of Carpathian Ruthenia, were incorporated into The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic after 1945.This reality has been acknowledged by Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of the Donetsk People's Republic who today announced the intent of Donetsk to lead a restoration of Malorossiya as part of a drive to reincorporate historic Russian territories into a close relationship with The Russian Federation.Zakharchenko stated Donetsk People's Republic Income and Charges Minister Alexander Timofeev added the following,He further stated that Malorossiya would develop a constitution based on discussions throughout the regions including in the new/revived area and would ultimately require approval via a democratic referendum.Timofeev continued When discussing the model of Belarus in respect of its relations with Moscow, Timofeev is alluding to the Union-State between Belarus and Russia which was created in 1996. This has allowed for open borders and common economic and military interests between Minsk and Moscow.Zakharchenko affirmed that the new state might need to live under emergency conditions for three years due to aggression from remnants of the regime currently ruling in Kiev.In spite of these difficulties Zakharchenko also struck an optimistic tone, encouraging people to dream big. He stated Representatives at the meeting where the announcement was made were drawn from historic Malorossiya and Novorossiya regions including Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Kherson, Nikolayev, Odessa, Sumy, Poltava, Chernigov, Kirovograd.The leader of the regime in Kiev, Petro Poroshenko responded to Zakharchenko's statement saying that Kiev would reconquer both Donbass and the Russian territory of the Crimean peninsula. Both of these statements speak to just how out of touch Poroshenko is with the realities on the ground., the idea underlines something The Duran discussed in November of 2016 Historic regions of different cultural, linguistic and sovereign backgrounds cannot be slammed together into an artificial state for an eternity. History shows that such states are typically dissolved or radically reformed after a certain period of uncomfortable pseudo-coexistence.The impending collapse of the regime in Kiev and the longer term re-defining of the borders of the state now called Ukraine will have to be addressed sooner or later. The proposals which came out of Donetsk today are as good a beginning on the road to much needed change as any.</s>This file photo taken on March 18, 2015, shows a woman walking under a billboard featuring a photo of the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Alexander Zakharchenko (centre) and reading: ‘We are grateful to the defenders of the fatherland’ in Donetsk (AFP photo)

MOSCOW/KIEV — The pro-Russian rebel leader of a breakaway region in eastern Ukraine proposed on Tuesday replacing Ukraine with a new federal state, in comments that could further undermine a 2015 peace deal that is already faltering.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko rejected the idea, describing Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), as part of "a puppet show", with Russia pulling his strings in order to relay a message.

France and Germany, which are involved in diplomatic efforts to end the Ukraine crisis, also condemned the proposal. However, the Kremlin said it warranted analysis, though it declined to discuss the matter or say if it knew beforehand of the plan.

Ukrainian officials contend that Russia wants to show the world, and the United States especially, it can keep the crisis in a suspended state and deepen it if need be. A new US envoy for the Ukraine crisis was appointed this month and Moscow and Washington are likely to start regularly engaging on the issue.

Zakharchenko, who scarcely would have expected anything other than outright rejection from Kiev, said in a declaration that he and his allies were proposing a new state called Malorossiya (Little Russia) be set up with its capital in rebel-held Donetsk.

Malorossiya was the term used to describe swaths of modern-day Ukraine when they were part of the Russian Empire in tsarist times and is one many Ukrainians today regard as offensive.

Ukraine, a country of about 42.5 million people, declared independence from Moscow in 1991.

"We are proposing to residents of Ukraine a peaceful way out of a difficult situation without war. It's our last proposal," Zakharchenko said in a statement. The new state would be federal, with regions enjoying a large degree of autonomy.

He said the move was backed by delegates from different Ukrainian regions, but a statement from the neighbouring rebel territory of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic said it had been unaware of the initiative and did not support it.

His declaration cast a shadow over the faltering Minsk peace agreement between the rebels and the Ukrainian government, which has failed to quell fighting between the two sides and has only been partially implemented since a pro-Russian uprising erupted in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Russia denies accusations it has delivered arms and provided troops backing rebels in the industrial, largely Russian-speaking east. On Tuesday the Kremlin said it remained committed to the Minsk peace deal.

Yevhen Marchuk, Ukraine's representative in the talks on implementing the peace deal, told Ukrainian TV channel 112.ua that Zakharchenko's declaration would complicate negotiations and looked like a Russian attempt to sabotage the process.

France condemned the idea and demanded Russia do more to prevent a further escalation. A German government spokeswoman also criticised the move, calling it "totally unacceptable".

Ukraine's top military commander, Viktor Muzhenko, said on social media that the Ukrainian people would "bury" Malorossiya, calling the plan one of the rebels' "sick fantasies".

Three former rebel leaders told Reuters in May that a top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin decides how the pro-Moscow administration of eastern Ukraine is run and who gets what jobs there, challenging Kremlin denials that it calls the shots in the region.</s>The Russian government said it was taken by surprise Tuesday when the rebel leader of a breakaway region of eastern Ukraine proposed the creation of a new nation-state called Malorossiya, or Little Russia.

The head of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, told reporters that the new country would include his territory and the neighboring self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic, and that it would eventually become part of a wider union with Belarus and Russia.

"We believe that the state of Ukraine cannot be reinstated the way it used to be,” he said.

Russia, which openly sympathizes with the pro-Russia separatists but rejects allegations that it has provided military support, denied any role in the proposal and said it still backed the 2015 peace agreement crafted in Minsk, Belarus, to reintegrate the breakaway territories into Ukraine.

The proposal for Malorossiya was nothing more than a “personal initiative” of the rebel leaders, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The idea should be subject “to reflection and analysis, but we remain committed to the Minsk accords,” he said.

Boris Gryzlov, Russia's envoy to the Minsk talks, remained silent for several hours after the announcement, but later in the day dismissed the idea as nothing more than fodder for public discussion.

“This announcement does not have any legal consequences,” he told Russian news agencies.

Even the rebel government in Luhansk seemed caught off guard by the proposal to include it in a new country.

“Luhansk had not been informed of the plans and we are not willing to consider it as something that needs attention,” a representative told the news agency Interfax.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, however, suggested that Russia was behind the rebel announcement, saying at a news conference in Tbilisi, Georgia, that “Zakharchenko is not a political figure, but a puppet transmitting the Kremlin messages.”

He promised to bring the eastern regions and Crimea back into Kiev’s fold.

The conflict in Ukraine began in 2014 after a mass street movement led to the ousting that February of pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovich.

Russia, which criticized the demonstrations as a Western-orchestrated coup, moved troops into the Crimean peninsula, ostensibly to protect its compatriots and Russian speakers from Ukrainian nationalists. But in March 2014, Russia annexed Crimea, and in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, pro-Russia separatist militia groups took over government buildings and declared independence from Kiev.

The Minsk peace talks, which were orchestrated by Germany, Britain and France, have stumbled as fighting has continued to flare up in the region. More than 10,000 people have died in the conflict, many of them civilians. Peace talks were scheduled to resume this week.

Zakharchenko made his announcement at a news conference in the city of Donetsk, which he said would be the capital of the new country. He wore fatigues and various medals on his chest.

He presented a newly written constitution for Malorossiya, a map showing all of Ukraine except Crimea, and a flag to represent the new state. The flag was adapted from that of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, a 17th century Cossack leader who led a revolt against Polish rule in Ukraine and later swore allegiance to Russia.

“It’s not a revolution; it’s a return to history,” Zakharchenko said.

The name “Malorossiya” comes from the historical name for parts of Ukraine that once made up the Russian empire. By choosing the name, the rebel governments seemed to be replacing “Novorossiya,” another historical term once used by Russian President Vladimir Putin to describe the southeast territories of Ukraine.

Novorossiya became a concept many rebel leaders and fighters saw as a Kremlin-approved initiate to expand its territories. But Russia distanced itself from the idea as the war raged on, Western sanctions began to hurt its economy and the Minsk agreement came into force.

In Washington on Tuesday, a representative of the State Department who was asked about Malorossiya said: “That is something that’s certainly an area of concern to us, but … beyond that, I don’t want to dignify it with a response."

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona released a statement blaming the Russian president, saying that the “ultimate responsibility for this latest flagrant violation of Ukraine's sovereignty lies squarely with Vladimir Putin's Russia, upon whose leadership, financing, troops and weapons the separatists are entirely dependent.”</s>MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - The pro-Russian rebel leader of a breakaway region in eastern Ukraine announced proposals to abolish Ukraine and create a new state in its place on Tuesday, comments that could further undermine a 2015 peace deal that is already faltering.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko dismissed the idea, describing Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), as part of "a puppet show", with Russia pulling his strings in order to relay a message.

Ukrainian officials said Russia wanted to show the world, and the United States especially, it could keep the crisis in a suspended state and deepen it if need be. A new U.S. envoy for the Ukraine crisis was appointed this month and Moscow and Washington are likely to start regularly engaging on the issue.

Zakharchenko, who scarcely would have expected anything other than outright rejection from Kiev, said in a declaration that he and his allies were proposing a new state called Malorossiya (Little Russia) be set up with its capital in rebel-held Donetsk.

Malorossiya was the term used to describe swaths of modern-day Ukraine when they were part of the Russian Empire and is one which many Ukrainians today regard as offensive.

"We are proposing to residents of Ukraine a peaceful way out of a difficult situation without war. It's our last proposal," Zakharchenko said in a statement. The new state would be federal, with regions enjoying a large degree of autonomy.

He said the move was backed by delegates from different Ukrainian regions, though a statement from the neighboring rebel territory of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic said it had been unaware of the initiative.

His declaration cast a shadow over the faltering Minsk peace agreement between the rebels and the Ukrainian government which has failed to quell fighting between the two sides and has only been partially implemented since a pro-Russian uprising broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Russia denies accusations it has delivered arms and provided troops backing rebels in the industrial, largely Russian-speaking east.

Yevhen Marchuk, Ukraine's representative in talks on implementing the peace deal, told Ukrainian TV channel 112.ua that Zakharchenko's declaration would complicate negotiations and looked like a Russian attempt to sabotage the process.

France, which along with Germany has been closely involved in trying to resolve the Ukraine crisis, condemned the idea and demanded Russia do more to prevent a further escalation.

A German government spokeswoman also criticized the move, calling it "totally unacceptable."

Ukraine's top military commander, Viktor Muzhenko, said on social media that the Ukrainian people would "bury" Malorossiya, calling the plan one of the rebels' "sick fantasies".

The Kremlin, which denies allegations it controls the rebels, was expected to comment on the matter later on Tuesday.

Three former rebel leaders told Reuters in May that a top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin decides how the pro-Moscow administration of eastern Ukraine is run and who gets what jobs there, challenging Kremlin denials that it calls the shots in the region.</s>Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region have announced what they say is the creation of a new state called Malorossia, or Little Russia, a declaration that was swiftly condemned by Kyiv.

The announcement on July 18 appeared to be the latest twist in attempts by the separatists who seized territory with Russian help in 2014 to claim legitimacy and discredit the government of Ukraine.

But it was met with silence from the Kremlin and failed to win support from fellow separatists in the neighboring Luhansk region, where one leader said the idea "raises big doubts."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko suggested it was part of a Russian effort to divide and conquer his country, and said that would never happen.

Steeped in the history of Ukraine and its perennially troubled ties with Russia, the announcement comes amid a war that has killed more than 10,000 people in eastern Ukraine and continues despite an internationally backed cease-fire mandated by the 2015 Minsk accords.

Aleksandr Zakharchenko, leader of the separatists who control the city of Donetsk and part of the surrounding province, which borders Russia, read out a declaration on the creation of Malorossia, according to the separatist-affiliated Donetsk News Agency.

Speaking at a meeting with unidentified "representatives" of numerous provinces that are controlled by Kyiv, he suggested that the idea is for Malorossia to assume the mantle of Ukraine, which the declaration asserted "has revealed itself as a failed state."

"We must build a new country in which the concepts of conscience and honor are not forgotten," Zakharchenko said, according to the Donetsk separatists' website.

Another Donetsk separatist leader, Aleksandr Timofeyev, read out a so-called "Constitutional Act" that said participants at the meeting "agree that the new state will be called Malorossia, because the very name Ukraine has discredited itself."

Malorossia, which means Little Russia or Lesser Russia, was a name used in Tsarist-era Russia for several regions of today's Ukraine.

Another tsarist-era term for parts of Ukraine, Novorossia -- New Russia -- was sometimes used by separatists and Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, around the time that Russia was fomenting separatism in Ukraine.

Use of the term added to concerns in Kyiv and the West that Russia would seek to take control over large portions of eastern and southern Ukraine, and might try to annex the area or create a new state beholden to Moscow.

But talk of Novorossia faded after a few months, as Kyiv's forces held the Russia-backed separatists to territory covering parts of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russia has not formally recognized the self-proclaimed separatist entities in Ukraine as independent, and Moscow's stated position is that they should be part of Ukraine.

Analysts say Russia hopes to continue to use them as long as it can to destabilize Ukraine and maintain pressure on its pro-Western government.

There was no immediate Kremlin comment on the declaration about Malorossia.

But Poroshenko suggested the initiative was part of a Russian effort to break Ukraine into pieces and said it would not succeed.

"From the beginning of the military aggression against my nation, the Russian Federation's goal has been to divide Ukraine into parts," Poroshenko said during a visit to Tbilisi.

He said that the "Novorossia project" had "completely failed."

Poroshenko said that Zakharchenko and Luhansk separatist leader Igor Plotnitsky are "not political figures but a puppet show that transmits messages received from Russia."

Plotnitsky's press service, meanwhile, said the Luhansk leadership had not even been invited to discuss the new initiative and that they support the Minsk peace process, in which Western governments are still pushing for an end to the war in eastern Ukraine.

Another leader of the separatists in Luhansk, Vladimir Degtyarenko, said that "at the moment the expediency of such a step raises big doubts."

Yevhen Marchuk, a representative of Kyiv in talks involving Ukraine, Russia, and the separatists, said the announcement by the Donetsk separatists could scuttle a meeting scheduled to be held in Minsk on July 19.

And Igor Girkin, a Russian who was once a senior commander of the separatist forces in eastern Ukraine and also uses the name Igor Strelkov, told the Russian newspaper Kommersant that the plan to create Malorossia was "stillborn."

With reporting by Current Time TV, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, UNIAN, 112.Ukraina, TASS, and Interfax
DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko announced that the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) would form a new state called Malorossiya (Little Russia) as an official successor to what he called the "failed state" of Ukraine, with Donetsk replacing Kiev as the country's capital. Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and LPR leader Igor Plotnitsky denounced the plans.