Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine declared a new state called Little Russia

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine declared a new state called Little Russia, writes Index, reports the Patria agency. 

- Ukraine has shown its current and future inability to provide peace and prosperity to its citizens - the separatists wrote in a declaration published by the rebel Donetsk news agency.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko responded to the news of the declaration of the new state by promising to re-establish Ukrainian sovereignty in the rebel areas.

- The project of New Russia is buried - Poroshenko said, as reported by his spokesperson Svyatoslav Tsegolko on Twitter.

The separatist rebellion broke out three years ago in Ukraine's two easternmost regions, Donetsk and Luhansk, after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in protests in Kyiv. 

Russia declared this act a Western-orchestrated coup, and retaliated by annexing the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, where Russia's Black Sea fleet is stationed.

Moscow openly supports the rebels in eastern Ukraine, but denies Kyiv's accusations that it has sent its soldiers or weapons there. 

According to United Nations data, about ten thousand people have died in the conflict so far.