Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin had to admit on Friday there was a risk of secession of the sub-Carpathian region and other regions populated by ethnic minorities. He made the admission in an interview with Novoye Vremya Radio answering a question on whether the sub-Carpathian region might follow in the footsteps of Donbass.

"Zakarpattia [the sub-Carpathian region] is a very risky area for us from the point of view of application of hybrid methods," he said with an obvious hint at the so-called ‘hybrid war’ that Russia is allegedly conducting against the government in Kiev and its Western countries.

"Risks exist in other regions, too, where the Romanian and Bulgarian ethnic communities live," Klimkin said.

He said along with it the Ukrainian authorities would pay a dire price if it did nothing in the sphere, adding however that the problems in those regions could not be resolves "by money alone".

Zakarpattia is home to 1.26 mln people. It has very large ethnic communities of Hungarians, Romanians and the Slavic ethnos known as the Rusyns [sometimes referred to as the Ruthenians].

In some sub-Carpathian towns, non-Ukrainians constitute the absolute majority of residents.