The draft constitutional amendments regarding decentralization will not federalize Ukraine or grant special status to any of its regions, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.

"There will be neither federalization nor any status. This is what we will be voting for at the parliament on Monday [August 31] and this is how we will expose these lies and will protect the unitary status of Ukraine," the president said at a congress of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Solidarity and UDAR parties in Kyiv on Friday.

The proposed constitutional reform cancels Article 92 of the Ukrainian constitution regarding the status of Kyiv as the Ukrainian capital city and a number of other cities, Poroshenko said.

"Some have tried to take advantage of this situation. The Zaporizhia Council decided yesterday that they also needed the status and wanted to act under Article 92 of the constitution," he said.

According to media, the Zaporizhia Region Council backed at its session on August 27 the draft Ukrainian law On a Special Regime of the Enforcement of Ukrainian Legal Norms in Socioeconomic, Budget and Other Fields for Territories with Aggravated Environmental Conditions (the draft was supported by 66 out of 69 deputies present at the session).

The main task of the law is to expand the administrative and budget powers of local councils and to provide social support to people in the Zaporizhia region. The socioeconomic situation may be improved through the redistribution of taxes, which will leave more money to local budgets. The money will be invested in medical, ecological and educational projects and social protection.