Russian-backed rebels fighting against Kiev announced on Tuesday the creation of a new "state" that they said would take the place of Ukraine and have its capital in their territory.

The proposed country - which has no chance of getting off the ground - would be founded after a referendum and called Malorossiya, a tsarist-era name meaning "Little Russia" that once described most of the area covering modern-day Ukraine.

A constitution presented by rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko said representatives from the insurgents' self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk "People's Republics" and other regions had agreed to "declare the establishment of a new state, which is the successor of Ukraine."