The Crimea, which had gained autonomy in early 1991 and was now given special consideration by Kyiv, was envied by local elites in the Transcarpathian oblast of Ukraine, which had belonged to Czechoslovakia before the war. They, too, wanted autonomy. Odesa in the south and the Donbas coal region in the east were prime candidates for similar status. With federalism becoming a dirty word in the Ukrainian presidential election, Viacheslav Chornovil promised the Odesa elites a free economic zone.
