Moscow - The Russian Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) has confirmed that it sent proposals to the leaders of Poland, Romania and Hungary for referendums to be held in their regions bordering with Ukraine.
“Such letters have in fact been sent by us to the embassies of Poland, Hungary and Romania. However, they were not about some division of territory – we simply suggested that they hold referendums in their territories adjacent to Ukraine and make sure same referendums are held in a number of Ukrainian regions which previously belonged to these countries,” a party spokesperson told Interfax on March 24.
It would be expedient to recall the history of the formation of the Ukrainian state, the party said on its website. “Essentially, the people who are categorically incompatible by their psychological nature and have for centuries fought against one another have found themselves within the same territory,” the statement said.
On the eve of the Great Patriotic War the leaders of Socialist Russia, trying to protect themselves and their allies, “were practically compelled to incorporate a part of Romania’s Bessarabia into the Soviet Union.” Today it is the Chernivtsi region in Ukraine.
“Apart from that, the geopolitical considerations dictated the expansion of the USSR at the expense of a whole host of historically Polish territories. These are the Volyn, Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Rivne regions,” the party said, adding that these lands had always been a part of the Polish state.
“Another, no less eloquent example is Zakarpattia, the region that is ethnically and historically a part of Hungary,” the statement said.
The LDPR has therefore suggested its solution: “Poland, Romania and Hungary should consider seeking referendums to be held in the territories of the aforesaid Ukrainian regions and in the border regions of Poland, Romania and Hungary. It will ask just one question: the possibility of returning the Chernivtsi region to Romania, Zakarpattia to Hungary and the five Ukrainian regions – Volyn, Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Rivne – to Poland.”
A similar proposal was made earlier by LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky at a State Duma plenary session on March 18. “I think the time has come not only for the Russian lands to be returned under the Russian flag, which is natural, but also for Ukraine’s western lands … to be returned to Poland, Hungary and Romania,” the party leader said.
