DNR foreign minister Alexander Kofman has confirmed that the Novorossiya "project" has been indefinitely suspended. Is this the end of an independent Donbass?
Novorossiya — the envisioned confederacy between Ukraine's two breakaway republics — is now on hold. ViaThe Moscow Times:
"The Novorossia project is frozen until a new political elite emerges in all these regions that will be able to head the movement. We don't have the right to impose our opinion on [the Ukrainian cities of] Kharkiv, Zaporizhia and Odessa," Kofman told the Vechernyaya Makeyevka newspaper published in the Donetsk region.
Gone for good?
His words echoed those of Novorossia parliament head Oleg Tsaryov, a former deputy of Ukraine's official parliament in Kiev. Last month, Tsaryov told the Kiev-based Vesti Reporter magazine that Novorossia's activities had been frozen because they did not fit into the Minsk cease-fire agreements signed in February by Putin, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko and the leaders of France and Germany. The official website of Novorossia's parliament is now offline.
Lavrov continues to stress that Russia wants a unified, federalized Ukraine — and apparently, at least for now, the rebel leaders are obeying Moscow's wishes.
Is a federalized Ukraine the only way to prevent further bloodshed? Is Novorossiya dead?
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