KYIV -- The Crimean-based civic group The Ukrainian Sevastopol has urged Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to block a draft law on making Sevastopol a "hero city," RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports.
The bill, which was drafted by several pro-Moscow members of the Ukrainian parliament last year, proposes to give a special status to Sevastopol that is similar to a status given to important World War II Soviet cities.
Members of The Ukrainian Sevastopol group fear that the special designation would distance the city and the whole peninsula from Kyiv.
Russia's Black Sea Fleet is based on the Ukrainian peninsula, which has a majority population of ethnic Russians.