Taygnybok: Crimea must become a region of Ukraine

The chairman of the union Oleh Tyagnybok told IMC.

According to him, the law on referendum provides for collecting 3 million signatures in 2/3 regions of Ukraine, 100 thousand signatures in each region. “We have 3 months to do the work, as the signatures will not be faked,” Tyagnybok said.

In his opinion, if the Ukrainian authorities don’t interfere into the issue concerning territorial integrity of Ukraine, our country might have serious problems in future. “The fate of Crimea, as well of any other part of Ukraine, must be determined by the whole Ukraine,” he considers.

The leader of “Freedom” noted that after the referendum the parliament should introduce changes into the Constitution of Ukraine, to change the state of the autonomy from republican into regional and to cancel the special status of the city Sevastopol.

“We propose to turn Sevastopol into a free economic zone and to give its residents an opportunity to earn money not due to the Russian military base, but due to the economic activities of the port,” Tyagnybok said.

He underlined that if Crimea became a region it would be more difficult to separate it from Ukraine than when it remained the autonomy.

Tyagnybok also considers it is necessary to adopt a state program on integration of Crimean part in the Ukrainian society. “We can’t just technically change the status. We must also hold the so-called integration process,” he summed up.