The faction of the Party of Regions at the Verkhovna Rada is intending to submit its draft law on amendments to the Constitution to fix the status of the second official language for Russian and the status of Ukraine as a neutral state.
Party of Regions Faction Leader Viktor Yanukovych announced this on the Fifth TV channel in the evening of May 19.
"We will include provisions of the party platform in our proposals concerning amendments to the Constitution, these are the questions of the Russian language and also the question of Ukraine's neutrality," he said.
Yanukovych said the Party of Regions has almost drawn up its draft amendments to the Constitution and they would be discussed by members of the faction soon.
Yanukovych said the Party of Regions would not make its draft amendments to the Constitution until it was endorsed by members of the faction.
Only after the party's draft amendments to the Constitution is endorsed by the faction, the Party of Regions is ready to take part in the creation of a temporary special commission of the Verkhovna Rada on amendments to the Constitution, he said.
Party of Regions Leader Yanukovych believes only the Rada commission could arrive at a compromise concerning amendments to the Constitution.
Yanukovych said the Party of Regions would not support a draft law on amendments to the Constitution drawn up by the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko.
"I want to say that these statements [that the Party of Regions and the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko might compromise on amendments to the Constitution] are ungrounded. We will never serve to the interests of other political forces, especially of our opponents," he said.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Party of Regions Leader Yanukovych said early elections to the Verkhovna Rada were impossible before the parliament passed a new Constitution or amendments to the Constitution.
Press conference entitled “Biofuel production in Ukraine: what projects to develop and what to forget about”
