Ukrainian crisis DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko announced that the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) would form a new state called Malorossiya (Little Russia) as an official successor to what he called the "failed state" of Ukraine, with Donetsk replacing Kiev as the country's capital. Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and LPR leader Igor Plotnitsky denounced the plans. Sources: ABC News The Telegraph