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Ukrainian Security Service Accuses Ruthenian Leader Of Separatism


KYIV -- Ukraine's Security Service has officially accused a leader of the minority Carpathian Ruthenians of threatening Ukraine's territorial integrity.

Dimitriy Sidor, the chairman of the Association of Carpathian-Ruthenians, could reportedly face a three-year jail sentence if found guilty.

RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports that on October 25 the Association of the Carpathian-Ruthenians held its second congress in the town of Mukhachev, where they called for establishing Carpathian-Ruthenian statehood.

Ruthenians are a Slavic ethnic group that speaks the Ruthenian language and is descended from the minority of Ruthenians who did not adopt the ethnonym Ukrainian to describe their ethnic identity in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

They live mainly in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine, as well as in Slovakia and Poland.

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